Radio communication devices and methods for controlling a radio communication device

ABSTRACT

A radio communication device may be provided. The radio communication device may include: a receiver configured to receive data using an antenna on a first carrier and a second carrier; an operation mode determination circuit configured to determine an active antenna operation mode based on information of the first carrier and information of the second carrier; and an antenna controller configured to control the antenna to operate in the determined active antenna operation mode.

TECHNICAL FIELD

Aspects of this disclosure relate generally to radio communicationdevices and methods for controlling a radio communication device.

BACKGROUND

A radio communication device may communicate with a base station, forexample wirelessly. The radio communication device may operate in aplurality of operation modes, and the radio communication device maydesire to find the best operation mode. For finding a good operationmode, the radio communication device may have to switch from a presentlyused operation mode, because the radio communication device may be ableto use only one operation mode at the same time. Thus, in case the radiocommunication device changes the operation mode in a situation of badtransmission quality or reception quality, there is a risk of evenfurther decreasing the quality by trying to find a better operationmode. Furthermore, radio communication devices may operate on variousbands, for each of which different operation modes may be suitable.Therefore, care has to be taken which criterion to use for deciding onor switching an operation mode, and when to perform a switching of anoperation mode.

SUMMARY

A radio communication device may include: a receiver configured toreceive data using an antenna on a first carrier and a second carrier;an operation mode determination circuit configured to determine anactive antenna operation mode based on information of the first carrierand information of the second carrier; and an antenna controllerconfigured to control the antenna to operate in the determined activeantenna operation mode.

A radio communication device may include: a transmitter configured totransmit data using an antenna on a first carrier and a second carrier;an operation mode determination circuit configured to determine anactive antenna operation mode based on information of the first carrierand information of the second carrier; and an antenna controllerconfigured to control the antenna to operate in the determined activeantenna operation mode.

A method for controlling a radio communication device may include:receiving data using an antenna on a first carrier and a second carrier;determining an active antenna operation mode based on information of thefirst carrier and information of the second carrier; and controlling theantenna to operate in the determined active antenna operation mode.

A method for controlling a radio communication device may include:transmitting data using an antenna on a first carrier and a secondcarrier; determining an active antenna operation mode based oninformation of the first carrier and information of the second carrier;and controlling the antenna to operate in the determined active antennaoperation mode.

A radio communication device for communication using an antenna on afirst carrier and a second carrier may include an antenna controllerconfigured to control the antenna to operate in an active antennaoperation mode, the active antenna operation mode based on informationof the first carrier and information of the second carrier.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In the drawings, like reference characters generally refer to the sameparts throughout the different views. The drawings are not necessarilyto scale, emphasis instead generally being placed upon illustrating theprinciples of various aspects of this disclosure. In the followingdescription, various aspects of this disclosure are described withreference to the following drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 shows a mobile radio communication system;

FIG. 2 shows a radio communication device with a receiver, an operationmode determination circuit, and an antenna controller;

FIG. 3 shows a radio communication device with a receiver, an operationmode determination circuit, an antenna controller, and a control dataquality determiner;

FIG. 4 shows a radio communication device with a transmitter, anoperation mode determination circuit, and an antenna controller;

FIG. 5 shows a radio communication device with a transmitter, anoperation mode determination circuit, an antenna controller, and acontrol data quality determiner;

FIG. 6 shows a flow diagram illustrating a method for controlling aradio communication device, for example the radio communication deviceof FIG. 2;

FIG. 7 shows a flow diagram illustrating a method for controlling aradio communication device, for example the radio communication deviceof FIG. 4;

FIG. 8 shows a radio communication device with a control data qualitydeterminer;

FIG. 9 shows a flow diagram illustrating a method for controlling aradio communication device, for example the radio communication deviceof FIG. 8;

FIG. 10 shows a radio communication device which may switch an operationmode based on a received first channel signal or based on a receivedsecond channel signal;

FIG. 11 shows a radio communication device which may switch an operationmode based on a sent first channel signal or based on a sent secondchannel signal;

FIG. 12 shows a radio communication device which may prevent operationmode switching;

FIG. 13 shows a radio communication device which may prevent operationmode switching based on pre-determined criteria;

FIG. 14 shows a dual-antenna radio communication device;

FIG. 15 shows a dual-antenna radio communication device with a sensorconfigured to determine a usage-scenario;

FIG. 16 shows a dual-receive antenna radio communication device with achannel matrix determination circuit;

FIG. 17 shows a dual-transmit antenna radio communication device with achannel matrix determination circuit;

FIG. 18 shows a radio communication device with an interface determiner;

FIG. 19 shows a radio communication device wherein a mode switchingcircuit operates based on an output of a transmitter;

FIG. 20 shows a radio communication device wherein a mode switchingcircuit operates based on an output of a transmitter with a receiver;

FIG. 21 shows a radio communication device with a circuit configured toevaluate a plurality of operation modes;

FIG. 22 shows a radio communication device with a paging indicatorreceiver;

FIG. 23 shows a radio communication device configured to perform aswitching of an operation mode in a reception gap;

FIG. 24 shows a radio communication device configured to perform aswitching of an operation mode in a transmission gap;

FIG. 25 shows a radio communication device with a processor;

FIG. 26 shows a flow diagram illustrating a method for a radiocommunication device which may switch an operation mode based on areceived first channel signal or based on a received second channelsignal;

FIG. 27 shows a flow diagram illustrating a method for a radiocommunication device which may switch an operation mode based on a sentfirst channel signal or based on a sent second channel signal;

FIG. 28 shows a flow diagram illustrating a method for a radiocommunication device which may prevent operation mode switching;

FIG. 29 shows a flow diagram illustrating a method for a dual-antennaradio communication device;

FIG. 30 shows a flow diagram illustrating a method for a dual-receiveantenna radio communication device with a channel matrix determinationcircuit;

FIG. 31 shows a flow diagram illustrating a method for a dual-transmitantenna radio communication device with a channel matrix determinationcircuit;

FIG. 32 shows a flow diagram illustrating a method for a radiocommunication device with an interface determiner;

FIG. 33 shows a flow diagram illustrating a method for a radiocommunication device wherein a mode switching circuit operates based onan output of a transmitter;

FIG. 34 shows a flow diagram illustrating a method for a radiocommunication device with a circuit configured to evaluate a pluralityof operation modes;

FIG. 35 shows a flow diagram illustrating a method for a radiocommunication device with a paging indicator receiver;

FIG. 36 shows a flow diagram illustrating a method for a radiocommunication device configured to perform a switching of an operationmode in a reception gap;

FIG. 37 shows a flow diagram illustrating a method for a radiocommunication device configured to perform a switching of an operationmode in a transmission gap;

FIG. 38 shows a flow diagram illustrating a method for a radiocommunication device which may switch an operation mode based on areceived first channel signal or based on a received second channelsignal;

FIG. 39 shows a flow diagram illustrating a method for a radiocommunication device including a complex scheme for testing a pluralityof operation modes;

FIG. 40 shows a flow diagram illustrating a method for a radiocommunication device including a basic round robin scheme for testing aplurality of operation modes;

FIG. 41 shows a flow diagram illustrating a method for controlling aradio communication device and deciding between robustness andthroughput when selecting an operation mode;

FIG. 42 shows a flow diagram illustrating a method for controlling aradio communication device taking into account both transmission andreception of data when selecting an operation mode;

FIG. 43 shows a flow diagram illustrating a method for a radiocommunication device taking into account transmission power whenselecting an operation mode; and

FIG. 44 shows a flow diagram illustrating a method for a radiocommunication device performing measurements for operation modes forpreparation for a hand-over.

DESCRIPTION

The following detailed description refers to the accompanying drawingsthat show, by way of illustration, specific details and aspects of thedisclosure in which the invention may be practiced. Other aspects of thedisclosure may be utilized and structural, logical, and electricalchanges may be made without departing from the scope of the invention.The various aspects of the disclosure are not necessarily mutuallyexclusive, as some aspects of the disclosure may be combined with one ormore other aspects of the disclosure to form new aspects of thedisclosure.

The terms “coupling” or “connection” are intended to include a direct“coupling” or direct “connection” as well as an indirect “coupling” orindirect “connection”, respectively.

The word “exemplary” is used herein to mean “serving as an example,instance, or illustration”. Any aspect of this disclosure or designdescribed herein as “exemplary” is not necessarily to be construed aspreferred or advantageous over other aspect of this disclosure ordesigns.

Various operation modes may include operation modes using different beampatterns, for example beam patterns with beams of different width.

The term “protocol” is intended to include any piece of software, thatis provided to implement part of any layer of the communicationdefinition.

A communication end device (which may also be referred to as end device)as referred to herein may be a device configured for wiredcommunication, for example a desktop computer or laptop, or for wirelesscommunication, for example a radio communication device. Furthermore, aradio communication device may be an end-user mobile device (MD). Aradio communication device may be any kind of mobile radio communicationdevice, mobile telephone, personal digital assistant, mobile computer,or any other mobile device configured for communication with a mobilecommunication base station (BS) or an access point (AP) and may be alsoreferred to as a User Equipment (UE), a mobile station (MS) or anadvanced mobile station (advanced MS, AMS), for example in accordancewith IEEE 802.16m.

The radio communication device may include a memory which may forexample be used in the processing carried out by the radio communicationdevice. A memory may be a volatile memory, for example a DRAM (DynamicRandom Access Memory) or a non-volatile memory, for example a PROM(Programmable Read Only Memory), an EPROM (Erasable PROM), EEPROM(Electrically Erasable PROM), or a flash memory, for example, a floatinggate memory, a charge trapping memory, an MRAM (Magnetoresistive RandomAccess Memory) or a PCRAM (Phase Change Random Access Memory).

As used herein, a “circuit” may be understood as any kind of a logicimplementing entity, which may be special purpose circuitry or aprocessor executing software stored in a memory, firmware, or anycombination thereof. Furthermore, a “circuit” may be a hard-wired logiccircuit or a programmable logic circuit such as a programmableprocessor, for example a microprocessor (for example a ComplexInstruction Set Computer (CISC) processor or a Reduced Instruction SetComputer (RISC) processor). A “circuit” may also be a processorexecuting software, for example any kind of computer program, forexample a computer program using a virtual machine code such as forexample Java. Any other kind of implementation of the respectivefunctions which will be described in more detail below may also beunderstood as a “circuit”. It may also be understood that any two (ormore) of the described circuits may be combined into one circuit.

An “active antenna operation mode” may be an operation mode for anantenna, in which the antenna is operated (in other words: in which theantenna is not switched off). A smart antenna may be understood as anantenna which may be controlled to operate with different operationmodes, for example operation modes of different beam patterns.

Description is provided for devices, and description is provided formethods. It will be understood that basic properties of the devices alsohold for the methods and vice versa. Therefore, for sake of brevity,duplicate description of such properties may be omitted.

It will be understood that any property described herein for a specificdevice may also hold for any device described herein. It will beunderstood that any property described herein for a specific method mayalso hold for any method described herein.

FIG. 1 shows a mobile radio communication system 100. A radiocommunication device 102 may communicate with a base station 104, forexample wirelessly like indicated by arrow 106. The radio communicationdevice 102 may operate in a plurality of operation modes, e.g. withrespect to different radiation patterns or different directionalmultipath or channel responses, and the radio communication device maydesire to find the best operation mode.

The antenna of a radio communication device may be a key component inthe demodulation performance of a wireless device. Therefore, there maybe a lot of activities to improve the antenna. One way is to do a kindof beam forming of the antenna pattern towards the direction of theincoming or outgoing signal (an antenna which may be able to do beoperated in various antenna patterns may be referred to as a smartantenna). The antenna may be directed to a certain number of modes (inother words: operation modes or antenna patterns) by active impedancematching.

One critical task may then be to select the best (or at least a good)mode. The problem may be that to check which mode is good, all modes maybe desired to be tested and the antenna may only operate in one mode ata time. Thus, during the test phase, the device may also operate on badmodes and thus experience a performance loss. It will be understood thatfor testing, a mode switching circuit may switch an operation mode ofthe antenna (in other words: a mode switching circuit may performswitching of an operation mode of the antenna one time or more often fortesting, and again once the new operation mode of the antenna, in whichthe radio communication device should be operated has been determined).

For example in a moving device, the best mode may also changefrequently, thus the selected best mode may be outdated very fast.

A way to solve this problem may be to monitor the CQI (Channel QualityIndicator)/SNR (signal-to-noise ratio) from the current mode and starttesting other modes only when the CQI/SNR of used mode drops below acertain threshold. This may mean that during the test phase for themode, no compensation may be done for potentially bad performance.Furthermore, it may even happen that the used mode may be still the bestmode but the CQI/SNR drops because of a general degradation of the radioconditions. In this case, an even more severe performance loss may beseen (as the radio communication device may only test worse modes) withno benefit, because the previously used mode may be used again.

Like will be described below, devices and methods may be provided whichconsider DPCH (Dedicated Physical Channel) and HSDPA (High-SpeedDownlink Packet Access) interactions and antenna mode testing strategiesfor DPCH. Devices and methods may be provided which may consider areceive diversity (RxDiv) resp. MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output) UEand possible ideas for smart antenna mode testing strategies. Devicesand methods may be provided which consider the TX (transmission) of theUE and antenna mode testing strategies for it. Devices and methods maybe provided for measurements, e.g. related cell selection. Like will bedescribed further below, these devices and methods, which may mainlyfocus on a single-carrier system, may also be applied to a multi-carriersystem.

Devices and methods may be provided for systems which may use more thanone carrier, e.g. DualCarrier/DualBand-HSDPA (DC-HSDPA),QuadCarrier-HSDPA, DualCarrier HSUPA (High Speed Uplink Packet Access).By “more than one carrier” it may be referred to different maincarriers, e.g. in different bands and not, e.g., to sub-carriers in ODFM(Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiplexing) system like LTE (Long TermEvolution).

For each carrier, an antenna mode selection may be made according to acertain optimization criterion, like will be described further below.However, as one antenna may operate only in mode, potentially differentmode selections may be combined.

Devices and methods may be provided which optimize the throughput (DL(downlink) or UL (uplink) or both (which may be referred to as “UL+DL)).In the following, the downlink may be considered as an example. But thescheme may also be provided for UL or UL+DL.

For example, the CQIs of all active bands may be combined. To measureCQIs, the different modes have to be tried, for example like describedfurther below.

For example, the devices and methods may sum up the CQIs of theindividual carriers and select the mode with the highest sum.

However, the CQI may not map linearly to the bits actually transmittedor received (i.e. the throughput). Thus, the devices and methods may addthe bits which are expected to be received (transmitted by the NodeB)with the measured CQI, and then select the mode, which is expected toresult in the highest number of received bits.

For the calculation needed for determining the throughput, additionallythe BLER (Block Error Rate) or the number of retransmission may be takenin to account, e.g. by multiplying the number of bits per carrier withprobability that the bits will be error free (for example based onrecent average of BLER or retransmission).

In addition, the UE may weigh the information of the carriers by thereal (for example recent) throughput per carrier. The main carrier ofthe UE may be the carrier where the NW (network) puts all the standardusers (e.g. voice calls) and which is used for the control informationof the multiple carrier UEs. The second carrier may be reserved for thedownlink data of the multiple carrier UEs. Thus, the main carrier may bequite loaded but the second carrier could be very empty. Even with agood CQI, one may get only a low throughput, because of the limitedresources and may get HSDPA data only on a small number of codes and mayonly rarely be scheduled. On the other hand, the second carrier may beempty and the UE may get much more resources (for example codes orscheduled TTIs). Thus, even if it would have a lower CQI, the secondcarrier may contribute much more the overall throughput and this may beconsidered in the optimization.

It will be understood that the per carrier optimizations describedfurther below may be extended to the combination of multiple carriers.

In a multi-carrier system, only the main carrier may be used for thetransmission of important control information (e.g. cell updates).Missing such control information may have very severe effect, i.e. aconnection drop, while a missing data packet may just result inretransmission and lower throughput. Thus, it may be desired to ensure agood reception of the control information by the antenna mode selection.For a single carrier systems, devices and methods like described furtherbelow may be provided.

However, as described above, the other carriers may be the maincontributors to the throughput and as the other carriers may have adifferent optimal mode (for example the other carriers may even be in acompletely different band) focusing on the main carrier may be notoptimal.

Thus, devices and methods may be provided which may take the combinedthroughput (like described above) as optimization criterion for theantenna modes as long as the quality of the channels which receive thecontrol information is sufficient for a reliable reception. If thequality of the control information channel drops below a certainthreshold (which may be fix or variable depending on some otherparameters), the mode proposed by the carrier with the controlinformation may get the priority. If the quality of the control channelgets good again, the other carriers may be taken into account again.

A UE may have multiple antennas, e.g. for receiving diversity or MIMO.This may be considered for antenna mode selection, for example likedescribed further below, e.g. taking also into account if all or onlysome antennas are advanced antennas which can be controlled.

In a multiple antenna and multiple carrier UE, a scheme for antenna modecontrol may be provided which gives the control of a certain antenna toa certain mode. For example in the case of two advanced antennas and twocarriers, carrier 1 may control (for example by choosing the optimalmode for carrier 1) antenna 1 and carrier 2 may correspondingly controlantenna 2. This may not reach the global optimum, but it may be closeenough to have this as simple scheme which may follow a divide andconquer approach.

If not all antennas are advanced antennas, similar to what is describedabove, devices and methods may be provided which may consider whichcarriers contribute most to the throughput and which carriers haveimportant control information. An exemplary scenario may be two carriersand two antennas, but only one antenna may be an advanced controllableantenna. If the quality of the control information if sufficiently good(e.g. above a certain threshold), the carrier with the highestthroughput may control the antenna mode of the advanced antenna. Thismay be the second carrier, for reasons like described above. If thecontrol channel quality drops too low, the (main) carrier on which thecontrol information is mapped may take over control of the antenna mode,e.g. to avoid a connection drop.

Like described above, a multi-carrier UE may optimize the overallthroughput by smart combination of parameters of the individualcarriers, e.g. add CQIs, e.g. further considering the effectivethroughput.

Like described above, a UE may consider both, throughput and controlchannel, for optimization: If control channel is good, it may optimizethe throughput. If the control channel has bad quality, it may optimizethe control channel (i.e. the carrier to which the control channel ismapped).

Like described above, a UE may consider a relation between multipleantennas and multiple carriers, e.g. a scheme that one antenna is onlycontrolled by one carrier, potentially taking additionally the controlchannel and its quality into account.

Devices and methods may be provided for smart and dynamic operation ofadvanced antennas for multi-carrier systems.

FIG. 2 shows a radio communication device 200. The radio communicationdevice 200 may include a receiver configured to receive data using anantenna on a first carrier and a second carrier. The radio communicationdevice 200 may further include an operation mode determination circuit204 configured to determine an active antenna operation mode based oninformation of the first carrier and information of the second carrier.The radio communication device 200 may further include an antennacontroller 206 configured to control the antenna to operate in thedetermined active antenna operation mode. The receiver 202, theoperation mode determination circuit 204, and the antenna controller 206may be coupled with each other, for example via a connection 208, forexample an optical connection or an electrical connection, such as forexample a cable or a computer bus or via any other suitable electricalconnection to exchange electrical signals.

The information of the first carrier may include or may be at least oneof an indicator indicating a communication quality using the firstcarrier, an indicator indicating a throughput using the first carrier, aChannel Quality Indicator of the first carrier, a signal-to-noise ratioof the first carrier, a number of retransmission on the first carrier, abandwidth of the first carrier, a received signal strength indication ofthe first carrier, a received signal code power of the first carrier,and a block error rate of the first carrier. The information of thesecond carrier may include or may be at least one of an indicatorindicating a communication quality using the second carrier, anindicator indicating a throughput using the second carrier, a ChannelQuality Indicator of the second carrier, a signal-to-noise ratio of thesecond carrier, a number of retransmission on the second carrier, abandwidth of the second carrier, a received signal strength indicationof the second carrier, a received signal code power of the secondcarrier, and a block error rate of the second carrier.

FIG. 3 shows a radio communication device 300. The radio communicationdevice 300 may, similar to the radio communication device 200 of FIG. 2,include a receiver 202. The radio communication device 300 may, similarto the radio communication device 200 of FIG. 2, further include anoperation mode determination circuit 204. The radio communication device300 may, similar to the radio communication device 200 of FIG. 2,further include an antenna controller 206. The radio communicationdevice 300 may further include a control data quality determiner 302,like will be described in more detail below. The receiver 202, theoperation mode determination circuit 204, the antenna controller 206,and the control data quality determiner 302 may be coupled with eachother, for example via a connection 304, for example an opticalconnection or an electrical connection, such as for example a cable or acomputer bus or via any other suitable electrical connection to exchangeelectrical signals.

The receiver 202 may receive control data using the antenna on the firstcarrier. The control data quality determiner 302 may determine areception quality of the control data. The operation mode determinationcircuit 204 may determine the active antenna operation mode based on thefirst carrier if the reception quality of the control data is below apre-determined threshold.

The receiver 202 may receive data using a first antenna and a secondantenna on a first carrier and a second carrier. The operation modedetermination circuit 204 may determine an active antenna operation modefor the first antenna based on information of the first carrier. Theoperation mode determination circuit 204 may determine an active antennaoperation mode for the second antenna based on information of the secondcarrier. The antenna controller 206 may control the first antenna tooperate in the determined first active antenna operation mode. Theantenna controller 206 may control the second antenna to operate in thedetermined second active antenna operation mode.

The receiver 202 may receive data using a first antenna and a secondantenna on a first carrier and a second carrier. The operation modedetermination circuit 204 may determine an active antenna operation modefor the first antenna based on information of the first carrier. Theoperation mode determination circuit 204 may determine an active antennaoperation mode for the second antenna based on the determined firstactive antenna operation mode. The antenna controller 206 may controlthe first antenna to operate in the determined first active antennaoperation mode. The antenna controller 206 may control the secondantenna to operate in the determined second active antenna operationmode.

The operation mode determination circuit 204 may determine one of theinformation of the first carrier and the information of the secondcarrier as a carrier for operation mode determination. The operationmode determination circuit 204 may determine the active antennaoperation mode based on the information of the selected carrier foroperation mode determination.

FIG. 4 shows a radio communication device 400. The radio communicationdevice 400 may include a transmitter 402 configured to transmit datausing an antenna on a first carrier and a second carrier. The radiocommunication device 400 may further include an operation modedetermination circuit 404 configured to determine an active antennaoperation mode based on information of the first carrier and informationof the second carrier. The radio communication device 400 may furtherinclude an antenna controller 406 configured to control the antenna tooperate in the determined active antenna operation mode. The transmitter402, the operation mode determination circuit 404, and the antennacontroller 406 may be coupled with each other, for example via aconnection 408, for example an optical connection or an electricalconnection, such as for example a cable or a computer bus or via anyother suitable electrical connection to exchange electrical signals.

The information of the first carrier may include or may be at least oneof an indicator indicating a communication quality using the firstcarrier, an indicator indicating a throughput using the first carrier, aChannel Quality Indicator of the first carrier, a signal-to-noise ratioof the first carrier, a number of retransmission on the first carrier, abandwidth of the first carrier, a received signal strength indication ofthe first carrier, a received signal code power of the first carrier,and a block error rate of the first carrier.

The information of the second carrier may include or may be at least oneof an indicator indicating a communication quality using the secondcarrier, an indicator indicating a throughput using the second carrier,a Channel Quality Indicator of the second carrier, a signal-to-noiseratio of the second carrier, a number of retransmission on the secondcarrier, a bandwidth of the second carrier, a received signal strengthindication of the second carrier, a received signal code power of thesecond carrier, and a block error rate of the second carrier.

FIG. 5 shows a radio communication device 500. The radio communicationdevice 500 may, similar to the radio communication device 400 of FIG. 4,include a transmitter 402. The radio communication device 500 may,similar to the radio communication device 400 of FIG. 4, include anoperation mode determination circuit 404. The radio communication device500 may, similar to the radio communication device 400 of FIG. 4,include an antenna controller 406. The radio communication device 500may further include a control data quality determiner, like will bedescribed in more detail below. The transmitter 402, the operation modedetermination circuit 404, the antenna controller 406, and the controldata quality determiner 502 may be coupled with each other, for examplevia a connection 504, for example an optical connection or an electricalconnection, such as for example a cable or a computer bus or via anyother suitable electrical connection to exchange electrical signals.

The transmitter 402 may transmit control data using the antenna on thefirst carrier. The control data quality determiner 502 may determine areception quality of the control data. The operation mode determinationcircuit 404 may determine the active antenna operation mode based on thefirst carrier if the reception quality of the control data is below apre-determined threshold.

The transmitter 402 may transmit data using a first antenna and a secondantenna on a first carrier and a second carrier. The operation modedetermination circuit 404 may determine an active antenna operation modefor the first antenna based on information of the first carrier. Theoperation mode determination circuit 404 may determine an active antennaoperation mode for the second antenna based on information of the secondcarrier. The antenna controller 406 may control the first antenna tooperate in the determined first active antenna operation mode. Theantenna controller 406 may control the second antenna to operate in thedetermined second active antenna operation mode.

The transmitter 402 may transmit data using a first antenna and a secondantenna on a first carrier and a second carrier. The operation modedetermination circuit 404 may determine an active antenna operation modefor the first antenna based on information of the first carrier. Theoperation mode determination circuit 404 may determine an active antennaoperation mode for the second antenna based on the determined firstactive antenna operation mode. The antenna controller 406 may controlthe first antenna to operate in the determined first active antennaoperation mode. The antenna controller 406 may control the secondantenna to operate in the determined second active antenna operationmode.

The operation mode determination circuit 404 may determine one of theinformation of the first carrier and the information of the secondcarrier as a carrier for operation mode determination. The operationmode determination circuit 404 may determine the active antennaoperation mode based on the information of the selected carrier foroperation mode determination.

FIG. 6 shows a flow diagram 600 illustrating a method for controlling aradio communication device. In 602, a receiver of the radiocommunication device may receive data using an antenna on a firstcarrier and a second carrier. In 604, an operation mode determinationcircuit of the radio communication device may determine an activeantenna operation mode based on information of the first carrier andinformation of the second carrier. In 606, an antenna controller of theradio communication device may control the antenna to operate in thedetermined active antenna operation mode.

The information of the first carrier may include or may be at least oneof an indicator indicating a communication quality using the firstcarrier, an indicator indicating a throughput using the first carrier, aChannel Quality Indicator of the first carrier, a signal-to-noise ratioof the first carrier, a number of retransmission on the first carrier, abandwidth of the first carrier, a received signal strength indication ofthe first carrier, a received signal code power of the first carrier,and a block error rate of the first carrier. The information of thesecond carrier may include or may be at least one of an indicatorindicating a communication quality using the second carrier, anindicator indicating a throughput using the second carrier, a ChannelQuality Indicator of the second carrier, a signal-to-noise ratio of thesecond carrier, a number of retransmission on the second carrier, abandwidth of the second carrier, a received signal strength indicationof the second carrier, a received signal code power of the secondcarrier, and a block error rate of the second carrier.

The method may further include: receiving control data using the antennaon the first carrier; determining a reception quality of the controldata; and determining the active antenna operation mode based on thefirst carrier if the reception quality of the control data is below apre-determined threshold.

The method may further include: receiving data using a first antenna anda second antenna on a first carrier and a second carrier; determining anactive antenna operation mode for the first antenna based on informationof the first carrier; determining an active antenna operation mode forthe second antenna based on information of the second carrier;controlling the first antenna to operate in the determined first activeantenna operation mode; and controlling the second antenna to operate inthe determined second active antenna operation mode.

The method may further include: receiving data using a first antenna anda second antenna on a first carrier and a second carrier; determining anactive antenna operation mode for the first antenna based on informationof the first carrier; determining an active antenna operation mode forthe second antenna based on the determined first active antennaoperation mode; controlling the first antenna to operate in thedetermined first active antenna operation mode; and controlling thesecond antenna to operate in the determined second active antennaoperation mode.

The method may further include: determining one of the information ofthe first carrier and the information of the second carrier as a carrierfor operation mode determination; and determining the active antennaoperation mode based on the information of the selected carrier foroperation mode determination.

FIG. 7 shows a flow diagram 700 illustrating a method for controlling aradio communication device. In 702, a transmitter of the radiocommunication device may transmit data using an antenna on a firstcarrier and a second carrier. In 704, an operation mode determinationcircuit of the radio communication device may determine an activeantenna operation mode based on information of the first carrier andinformation of the second carrier. In 706, an antenna controller of theradio communication device may control the antenna to operate in thedetermined active antenna operation mode.

The information of the first carrier may include or may be at least oneof an indicator indicating a communication quality using the firstcarrier, an indicator indicating a throughput using the first carrier, aChannel Quality Indicator of the first carrier, a signal-to-noise ratioof the first carrier, a number of retransmission on the first carrier, abandwidth of the first carrier, a received signal strength indication ofthe first carrier, a received signal code power of the first carrier,and a block error rate of the first carrier. The information of thesecond carrier may include or may be at least one of an indicatorindicating a communication quality using the second carrier, anindicator indicating a throughput using the second carrier, a ChannelQuality Indicator of the second carrier, a signal-to-noise ratio of thesecond carrier, a number of retransmission on the second carrier, abandwidth of the second carrier, a received signal strength indicationof the second carrier, a received signal code power of the secondcarrier, and a block error rate of the second carrier.

The method may further include: transmitting control data using theantenna on the first carrier; determining a reception quality of thecontrol data; and determining the active antenna operation mode based onthe first carrier if the reception quality of the control data is belowa pre-determined threshold.

The method may further include: transmitting data using a first antennaand a second antenna on a first carrier and a second carrier;determining an active antenna operation mode for the first antenna basedon information of the first carrier; determining an active antennaoperation mode for the second antenna based on information of the secondcarrier; controlling the first antenna to operate in the determinedfirst active antenna operation mode; and controlling the second antennato operate in the determined second active antenna operation mode.

The method may further include: transmitting data using a first antennaand a second antenna on a first carrier and a second carrier;determining an active antenna operation mode for the first antenna basedon information of the first carrier; determining an active antennaoperation mode for the second antenna based on the determined firstactive antenna operation mode; controlling the first antenna to operatein the determined first active antenna operation mode; and controllingthe second antenna to operate in the determined second active antennaoperation mode.

The method may further include: determining one of the information ofthe first carrier and the information of the second carrier as a carrierfor operation mode determination; and determining the active antennaoperation mode based on the information of the selected carrier foroperation mode determination.

FIG. 8 shows a radio communication device 800 for communication using anantenna on a first carrier and a second carrier. The radio communicationdevice 800 may include an antenna controller 802 configured to controlthe antenna to operate in an active antenna operation mode, the activeantenna operation mode based on information of the first carrier andinformation of the second carrier.

The information of the first carrier may include or may be at least oneof an indicator indicating a communication quality using the firstcarrier, an indicator indicating a throughput using the first carrier, aChannel Quality Indicator of the first carrier, a signal-to-noise ratioof the first carrier, a number of retransmission on the first carrier, abandwidth of the first carrier, a received signal strength indication ofthe first carrier, a received signal code power of the first carrier,and a block error rate of the first carrier. The information of thesecond carrier may include or may be at least one of an indicatorindicating a communication quality using the second carrier, anindicator indicating a throughput using the second carrier, a ChannelQuality Indicator of the second carrier, a signal-to-noise ratio of thesecond carrier, a number of retransmission on the second carrier, abandwidth of the second carrier, a received signal strength indicationof the second carrier, a received signal code power of the secondcarrier, and a block error rate of the second carrier.

FIG. 9 shows a flow diagram 900 illustrating a method for controlling aradio communication device for communication using an antenna on a firstcarrier and a second carrier. In 902, an antenna controller of the radiocommunication device may control the antenna to operate in an activeantenna operation mode, the active antenna operation mode based oninformation of the first carrier and information of the second carrier.

The information of the first carrier may include or may be at least oneof an indicator indicating a communication quality using the firstcarrier, an indicator indicating a throughput using the first carrier, aChannel Quality Indicator of the first carrier, a signal-to-noise ratioof the first carrier, a number of retransmission on the first carrier, abandwidth of the first carrier, a received signal strength indication ofthe first carrier, a received signal code power of the first carrier,and a block error rate of the first carrier. The information of thesecond carrier may include or may be at least one of an indicatorindicating a communication quality using the second carrier, anindicator indicating a throughput using the second carrier, a ChannelQuality Indicator of the second carrier, a signal-to-noise ratio of thesecond carrier, a number of retransmission on the second carrier, abandwidth of the second carrier, a received signal strength indicationof the second carrier, a received signal code power of the secondcarrier, and a block error rate of the second carrier.

It will be understood that the radio communication device may includethe antenna, or that the radio communication device may make use of anexternal antenna, for example an antenna which is installed in a car.

Devices and methods described above may be combined, for exampledepending on other additional parameters like described below, withdevices and methods described below, for example with a certain priorityassigned to certain mechanisms.

In 3G (Third Generation; or 3GPP, Third Generation Partnership Project),there may exist mainly two different options for receiving data, theDPCH (Dedicated Physical Channel; “Rel99”, mainly for voice calls) andHSDPA (High-Speed Downlink Packet Access; mainly for data connections).They may differ by DPCH being a dedicated power controlled channel andHSDPA using a shared (for example not directly power controlled)channel. HSDPA may desire always a DPCH (or a fractional DPCH) runningin parallel.

It may be differentiated between different receiver types for priorityregarding antenna mode selection.

The performance of different antenna modes may not necessarily be thesame for DPCH and HSDPA. The radio communication device may receive theHSDPA downlink from only one base station (or cell) while it may receivethe DPCH from all cells in the active set, which may be up to 6 cells.Thus, for example the direction of arrival of the best signal may bedifferent for HSDPA and DPCH. Furthermore, as DPCH and HSDPA may employdifferent receiver types (for example Rake vs. equalizer), for somecases (for example for some path profiles) it may happen that DPCH andHSDPA prefer different antenna modes, for example because the antennaprofile from one direction may be very suited for one receiver butdetrimental for the other (for example, a delay spread larger than theequalizer length, for example from a repeater).

Then a priority decision may be desired to be made, which mode to use.As the DPCH may be power controlled and usually may include streamingservices (for example a voice call) with a target BLER (Block ErrorRate) mapped to it, there may be no immediate desire for the userequipment (UE) to optimize its performance in normal conditions. Thus,in normal conditions, the priority may be at maximizing the HSDPAthroughput. Only when the UE detects very bad conditions for the DPCH,which may result in a call drop (which may also terminate the HSDPAlink), the UE may give the priority to the DPCH. To detect the badconditions, the UE may use DPCH related parameters, for example the DPCHSNR (DPCH signal-to-noise ratio) and its relation to the SNR(signal-to-noise ratio) target (like for dynamic RxDiv (receivediversity)), or CPICH (Common Pilot Channel) related parameters likeRSSI (Received Signal Strength Indication), RSCP (Received Signal CodePower), or an Edo (carrier-to-noise ratio).

It may be understood that the priorities described above may also beused as a weighted criterion of the single criteria.

Smart trigger thresholds for antenna mode testing beside CQI, may beprovided, for example for 3G DPCH.

For HSDPA, the optimization criterion may be the CQI (Channel QualityIndicator). For DPCH, the radio communication device may use CPICHrelated parameters like RSSI, RSCP, Edo or DPCH related criteria likeDPCH SNR. For HSDPA, the radio communication device may trigger a modesearch if the CQI drops below a threshold. For DPCH thresholds may bedefined for the SNR. As the DPCH may be power controlled and not the SNRbut the relation of the SNR to the SNR target may be relevant, the radiocommunication device may trigger the mode search if the SNR drops belowthe target for some time, similar to dynamic RxDiv triggers known assuch. Also the approach of the out-of-sync threshold or a high number ofCRC (cyclic redundancy check) errors may serve as criterion. It will beunderstood that, several criteria may be combined (for example byBoolean operations like AND or OR), potentially with weighting andpriorities.

A regular antenna mode testing scheme (for example for a powercontrolled reception) and smart switching off and on of the regularmeasurement scheme may be provided.

As the DPCH may be power controlled, small variations in the antennaperformance may have no effect on the demodulation performance becausethey may be compensated very fast by the power control, as long as theUE is inside the power budget of the NodeB. Only when the NodeB cannotallocate all the downlink power requested by the UE anymore, thedemodulation performance may get critical for the UE. It is to be notedthat for the network (NW), an improved demodulation performance mayalways be beneficial for the downlink power budget. To trigger the modesearch only when the UE is in very bad conditions may be too late andduring the search, the demodulation performance may even further bedegraded by testing a bad antenna mode.

Thus, as an option, the radio communication device may do the modescanning in regular intervals to make sure that the mode selection (forexample for using the best mode) may be up-to-date when the UE entersdegrading conditions. When the UE enters the degrading conditions, themode searching (and thus the switching of an operation mode of theantenna) may even be stopped (for example to avoid a furtherdegradation, like described above) until the conditions get suchcritical, that a call drop on the current mode may be unavoidable (forexample because out-of-sync may already be triggered). Then, testing theother modes cannot make things worse and the radio communication devicemay search if another mode gets the UE out of the out-of-sync state.

The radio communication device may block antenna mode testing (in otherwords: the mode switching blocking circuit may prevent a switching of anoperation mode of the antenna) in (or for) certain critical systemevents or states.

As described above, there may be phases in which it may becounterproductive to start antenna mode testing, because the risk withtesting a possible even worse mode (in other words: the risk withswitching an operation mode of the antenna to an even worse operationmode) may be too high. The above described focuses on the radioconditions, for example degrading conditions. There may also exist forexample system states, where the mode switching blocking circuit mayblock antenna mode testing.

For example, during the reception of important control messages (forexample cell updates, reconfigurations, or similar messages) on thesignaling radio bearer (SRB), it may be dangerous to lose performance,as missing one of these messages may have severe effects, for example acall drop. Thus, during SRB traffic or when the reception of SRBmessages may be expected for the near future (for example the length ofthe antenna mode testing), antenna mode testing may be forbidden.

A similar system state may be compressed mode (CM), where it may be alsonot desired to risk a performance loss due to antenna mode testing andthe radio communication device may block it. Again, there may be then anevent like the one mentioned above (for example out-of-sync or close toit), which may override the decision.

The selection of criteria and combing or prioritization may depend alsoon additional parameters. For example:

-   -   The decision on priority between DPCH and HSDPA may be based on        the signal strength (RSSI (Received Signal Strength Indication),        RSCP (Received Signal Code Power)). For good signals, HSDPA may        have priority, for bad signals DPCH.    -   Also frequency offset or velocity may influence the priority.    -   Frequency offset or velocity may also determine the time between        the testing of the antenna modes.    -   Based on velocity, number of active set cells, and/or number of        neighbor cells the radio communication device may decide to        perform the regular mode testing or do an event driven mode        testing.

FIG. 38 shows a flow diagram 3800 illustrating a method for a radiocommunication device. The flow diagram 3800 shows an exemplarysimplified block diagram for a possible combination of what will bedescribed below. In 3802, the radio communication device may testantenna modes. In 3804, the radio communication device may check whichchannel signal has priority. In case HSDPA has priority, processing mayproceed in 3806. In 3806, the radio communication device may select anantenna mode based on CQI. In 3808, the radio communication device maycheck, whether a measurement interval has expired. In case themeasurement interval has expired, processing may proceed in 3802. Incase the measurement interval has not expired, processing may proceed in3810. In 3810, the radio communication device may check which channelsignal has priority. In case HSDPA has priority, processing may proceedin 3808. In case DPCH has priority, processing may proceed in 3802. Incase in 3804 the radio communication device may determine, that DPCH haspriority, processing may proceed in 3812. In 3812, the radiocommunication device may select an antenna mode, based for example onDPCH SNR vs. SNR target. Then processing may proceed in 3814, where theradio communication device may determine, whether regular measurementsshall be carried out. In case regular measurements shall be carried out,processing may proceed in 3820. In 3820, the radio communication devicemay determine, whether a measurement interval has expired. In case themeasurement interval has expired, processing may proceed in 3824. Incase the measurement interval has not expired, processing may proceed in3822. In 3822, the radio communication device may check which channelsignal has priority. Is case HSDPA has priority, processing may proceedin 3824. In case DPCH has priority, processing may proceed in 3820. Incase the radio communication device determines in 3814 that no regularmeasurements shall be carried out, processing may proceed in 3816. In3816 the radio communication device may check, whether triggerconditions are met. In case the trigger conditions are met, processingmay proceed in 3824. In case the trigger conditions are not met,processing may proceed in 3818. In 3818, the radio communication devicemay check which channel signal has priority. In case DPCH has priority,processing may proceed in 3816. In case HSDPA has priority, processingmay proceed in 3824. In 3824 the radio communication device maydetermine, whether mode testing is to be blocked (in other words:whether the radio communication device may is to prevent switching of anoperation mode of the antenna). In case mode testing is not to beblocked, processing may proceed in 3802. In case mode testing is to beblocked, processing may continue in a loop of 3804, until in modetesting is no longer to be blocked.

In 3804, the radio communication device may apply the below-described.For example, usually HSDPA (if active) may have priority, except whenDPCH detects bad conditions.

In 3816, the radio communication device may apply trigger conditions forDPCH like described.

In 3814, the radio communication device may perform regular measurementsin normal operation, but not in bad conditions.

In 3824, the radio communication device may block mode testing forexample while a SRB (signaling radio bearer) message is ongoing.

It is to be noted that the above described above may refer to 3G withHSDPA and DPCH, however, the radio communication device may apply it maybe applied in general also to other wireless standards (and respectiveUEs with advanced antennas).

In the above, DPCH and HSDPA interactions and antenna mode testingstrategies for DPCH have been described.

In the following, devices and methods will be described to overcome theproblems outlined above. For example, a receive diversity (RxDiv) devicewith several (for example two) receive antennas (or receiver paths) willbe described.

In an RxDiv device, only one of the two antennas may be an advancedsteerable antenna or both. Depending on that, the following may beapplied respectively, for example the antenna mode scanning may applyobviously only to the advanced antennas.

As RxDiv significantly may increase the current consumption and/or powerconsumption due to the second receive path, dynamic RxDiv may be a keyfeature for RxDiv. With dynamic RxDiv, the second receive path may beswitched on only when needed. In 3G, the criterions may differ for HSDPAand DPCH. For HSDPA, RxDiv may always be on as long as packets arereceived, because the shortened download time due to higher throughputmay outweigh the increased power consumption. In the downlink powercontrolled DPCH, RxDiv may most of the time be off. Only in verydegrading conditions it may be switched on to give a boost for thedemodulation performance and to avoid a call drop.

It will be understood that what is described below may also be appliedto receivers with more than two antennas.

The radio communication device may alternate antenna mode testing incase multiple antennas are in use anyway.

In the case of RxDiv constantly switched on, for example due to ongoingHSDPA traffic or because static RxDiv is configured, the antenna modesmay not be tested at the same time but rather alternating. Thus, theremay always be one antenna with a stable performance, which may avoid toolarge performance drops in case a bad antenna mode is tested.

The mode testing may be continuously, for example as soon as one antennais finished, the radio communication device may start testing the otherone, or in certain measurement intervals.

In case multiple antennas are in use, the radio communication device mayselect the worst performing antenna for antenna mode testing.

The antenna for which the modes are tested (in other words: the antenna,for which the operation mode of the antenna is changed) may also not (ornot only) be chosen alternating as described herein, but the radiocommunication device may choose the antenna, which has at the decisiontime the worse performance, for example a lower SNR, CQI, or RSSI. Forthis worse antenna, the chance may be higher to find a better mode andthe effect of hitting an even worse mode during testing may not be assevere as hitting a bad mode with the originally better antenna, whichhad the higher contribution to the reception quality, for example thethroughput.

The radio communication device may perform antenna mode testing in idleperiod of bursty HSDPA traffic.

As described above, for HSDPA, dynamic RxDiv may switch RxDiv usually ONwhen HSDPA packets are received, and OFF if no packets are received fora pre-determined time. The latter may not mean the HSDPA radio bearergets removed; it may be for example just because of the usedapplication, for example bursty traffic like push email or browsing.

Thus, according to various embodiments and devices, the antenna modesmay not be tested during active HSDPA traffic or only in longerintervals here, but the radio communication device may test the antennamodes as soon as the HSDPA traffic stops. Then, there may be no risk ofthroughput degradation as no packets are received anyway. And theunderlying DPCH may be power controlled, so the impact of testing badmodes may be limited or compensated by other mechanism described herein.

For DPCH with dynamic RxDiv, but currently single-Rx, the radiocommunication device may switch on RxDiv for a phase of antenna modetesting.

For DPCH (for example a voice call), RxDiv may be switched most of thetime OFF by dynamic RxDiv, because for the power controlled DPCH, theRxDiv performance gain may only be needed in degrading conditions. Drivetests have shown that the RxDiv usage for DPCH with dynamic RxDiv isusually very low, for example less than 2%. Thus, the increase in powerconsumption compared to a single-Rx UE may be negligible.

As very short RxDiv periods may not hurt the overall power consumption,RxDiv may be switched on also briefly for the antenna mode testing.Thus, a performance drop due to a bad antenna mode may be(over-)compensated by the RxDiv gain. Thus, when in certain intervalsthe antenna modes are tested, RxDiv may be switched on for the testperiod. If several advanced antennas exist, the radio communicationdevice may test them in parallel or consecutively. The latter one may beon the safer side for the performance, but on the other hand mayincrease the RxDiv on time, and thus may increase the power consumption.

At the end of the measurement period, the radio communication device maychoose the best antenna mode (from all available or tested antennas),when switching back to single-Rx operation.

The radio communication device may adapt dynamic RxDiv triggers duringantenna mode test phase.

When a dynamic RxDiv UE is in single-RX reception, for example during aDPCH voice call, there may exist the mechanism of switching RxDiv on asa safeguard for a performance drop. Thus, the radio communication devicemay do the antenna measurement in the single-RX mode on the one activeantenna, but it may be ensured that in case the demodulation performancedrops too low because of a very bad antenna mode, that immediately RxDivmay be switched on to compensate. The RxDiv trigger mechanism may workvery fast, but in this case with the knowledge of an upcoming possibledegraded performance, it may be adapted to further speed up itsactivation.

Rxdiv may be switched on briefly at antenna mode switches to avoidperformance glitches.

When switching the antenna modes, very short “glitches” in thedemodulation performance may occur, because for example channelestimation or path delay profile may need a short time to adapt sincethey won't change smoothly but “jump” abruptly to the values from thenew mode. To avoid negative effects by the “glitches”, RxDiv may beswitched on for these very short periods. This may not mean for thecomplete test phase (here for example power control may compensate), butonly for the initial settling period of an antenna mode.

With dynamic RxDiv, when switching from 2-Rx to single Rx, the radiocommunication device may measure and choose the best antenna mode.

Dynamic RxDiv for DPCH may trigger RxDiv on if the performance of asingle antenna is not sufficient. To switch RxDiv off again, the radiocommunication device may check if a single antenna delivers sufficientperformance again. With the advanced antennas (in other words: with theantennas configured to operate in a plurality of operation modes), thismay be extended such that after RxDiv is switched on, the radiocommunication device may check all possible antenna modes (on allantennas) if there is a certain mode on a certain antenna, which may begood enough for single-Rx operation. Thus, the radio communicationdevice may extend the search from antennas to the individual modes ofthe antennas.

As the antennas in a multiple antenna (for example RxDiv) UE may not bespaced that far apart due to the constraints of the form factor, theremay be dependencies between the antenna modes of different antennas.Thus, if a certain mode is the best one on one antenna, a certain modemay be most likely the best one on another antenna. This may beconsidered in the antenna mode testing, for example:

-   -   test the expected better modes first;    -   only test modes which are predicted to be good; and/or    -   do not test modes which are predicted to be bad.

Due to the environment, for example a user holding the phone, thedependencies may change. Thus, not only factory design dependencies maybe considered, but also the results of the past antenna mode test on thedifferent antennas, which were triggered by some other mechanism.

Furthermore, sensors on the phone (for example a proximity sensor or atouch sensor) may give information, which may influence the antenna modeselection, for example which modes to test preferably (in other words:to which operation modes the radio communication device may switchpreferably).

What has been described above may be combined, for example depending onother additional parameters (for example like will be described below)or with a pre-determined priority assigned to pre-determined mechanisms.

It is to be noted that the description above may refer to 3G with HSDPAand DPCH, however, what is described herein may be applied in generalalso to other wireless standards (and respective UEs with advancedantennas).

In the above, a receive diversity (RxDiv) UE and aspects for smartantenna mode testing strategies have been described.

In wireless standards such as LTE (Long Term Evolution) and HSDPA(High-Speed Downlink Packet Access), MIMO (Multiple Input MultipleOutput) transmission schemes may be defined to further improve thethroughput. MIMO may combine multiple antennas at the transmitter (forexample at the base station) and multiple antennas at the receiver (forexample at the UE) with an intelligent mapping of the data, so thatparallel data streams can be transmitted orthogonally via the sameconnection.

In the following, exploitation of advanced antennas in combination withMIMO will be described.

For example, the radio communication device may use the rank of thechannel matrix as optimization criterion for antenna mode optimization.It will be understood that a channel matrix may be a matrix including aplurality of entries, wherein each entry in a certain line and columndescribed the transmission from an antenna corresponding to the numberof the line to an antenna corresponding to the number of the column. Itwill be understood that also a definition leading to the transpose ofthe previous definition may possible, without changing the rank of therespective channel matrix.

The optimization goal may be the throughput. Thus, the CQI may be chosenagain as optimization criterion. But also the rank of the MIMO channelmatrix may be chosen as optimization criterion. With a higher rank, moreparallel data streams may be transmitted, which usually may relate to ahigher throughput. As similar to what has been described above, severalreceive antennas may exist, different antenna mode testing strategiesmay be provided.

Based on an analysis of the channel matrix or the CQI, the radiocommunication device may find out which antenna is currently the worstone, i.e. for which antenna the selection of a different and betterantenna mode may yield the most benefit.

Based on stored previous measurement, the radio communication device maycalculate what the channel matrix (and for example its rank) would be ifa certain other mode on a certain antenna is used. Then, the radiocommunication device may not necessarily test all possible antennamodes, but it focus on the one(s), which is/are expected to be good.

This may be extended to a round robin like antenna selection process,where each antenna may be tuned to the respective (local) optimumsetting. This optimization process may lead to the global optimum (orclose to it) in stationary conditions.

Via the requested precoding matrix (which may be applied at thetransmitting NodeB), the UE may also influence the transmitter side.This may be also taken into the consideration for optimization of thechannel matrix by selecting different antenna modes.

FIG. 39 shows a flow diagram 3900 illustrating a method (for example acomplex scheme) for a radio communication device. In 3902, the radiocommunication device may select an antenna with a lowest contribution toa selected criterion. In 3904, the radio communication device maydetermine, whether antenna modes have been preselected. In case antennamodes have been preselected, processing may continue in 3906. In 3906,the radio communication device may test all antenna modes for a selectedantenna. In 3908, the radio communication device may select an antennamode with best performance for the selected criterion. In case it isdetermined in 3904, that a preselection of antenna modes has not beenperformed, processing may continue in 3912. In 3912, the radiocommunication device may select antenna modes based on the criterion. In3914, the radio communication device may test the selected antenna modesfor the selected antenna. As noted by block 3910, the radiocommunication device may select a selection criterion, for examplethroughput or maximum rank. The radio communication device may use thiscriterion in 3902 and 3912.

FIG. 40 shows a flow diagram 4000 illustrating a method (for example abasic round robin scheme) for a radio communication device. In 4002, theradio communication device may select one antenna in a round-robinfashion, for example in a loop over all antennas. In 4004, the radiocommunication device may test antenna modes for the selected antenna. In4006, the radio communication device may select the antenna mode withthe highest throughput.

The radio communication device may use antenna mode optimization tosuppress interference from other users in MU-MIMO (Multi-User MIMO) likewill be described in more detail below.

One variant of MIMO may be Multi-User MIMO, where more than one user mayshare the same physical resource. The different users may spatially beseparated and thus may have different channel matrices. Via differentprecoding, then the base station may transmit separate data streams forthe different users. Due to the different channel matrices, each usermay mainly “see” his own data stream. But as the channel matrices maynot be completely orthogonal, each user may see some interference fromother users.

Using or testing different antenna modes, it may according to this notonly be tried to receive the best own signal, but also the interferencefrom signals for other users may be reduced. In total, this may improvethe own SNR of the user and in general may increase the capacity of thenetwork.

Thus, one optimization criterion during antenna mode testing may be thelowest interference from other users in a MU-MIMO scenario. Again, theprecoding matrices at the NodeB may be included into the optimizationprocess.

The radio communication device may optimize the channel matrix (forexample by antenna mode selection) not for throughput but forrobustness, for example in combination with a pre-determinedtransmission mode and pre-determined precoding.

Maximizing the throughput may be an important optimization criterion inMIMO systems, which may usually be targeted for high rate datatransmissions.

But for some cases, the data rate itself may be of less importance, butthe robustness of the transmission may have the focus, for example totransmit at least a small amount of data without errors orretransmissions. Examples for such scenarios may be the reception ofimportant control messages (for example handover information), degradingradio conditions with the UE being close to a connection loss, or voicecalls (for example voice over IP (Internet Protocol)). In this case, itmay be desired to have a channel matrix which may be more robust (forexample with a lower rank and different transmission mode), but mayallow less data rate.

Also in these cases, the antenna mode testing or selection may beadapted to better support for example a changed transmission mode.

The radio communication device may make a decision like described belowwith reference to FIG. 41.

FIG. 41 shows a flow diagram 4100 illustrating a method for controllinga radio communication device. In 4102, the radio communication devicemay determine, whether special conditions apply. In case specialconditions do not apply, processing may continue in 4104. In 4104, theradio communication device may apply an antenna mode testing scheme formaximum throughput. In 4106, the radio communication device may selectthe antenna mode or the antenna modes with maximum throughput. In casethe radio communication device determines in 4102, that specialconditions apply, processing may continue in 4108. In 4108, the radiocommunication device may apply an antenna mode testing scheme for bestrobustness. In 4110, the radio communication device may select theantenna mode of the antenna modes with best robustness.

It will be understood that what has been described above may becombined, for example depending on other additional parameters likedescribed above or with a pre-determined priority assigned to apre-determined aspect of the described aspects.

In the above, a receive diversity (RxDiv) and/or MIMO UE and smartantenna mode testing strategies have been described.

In the above, mainly focus has been put on the reception in thedownlink, for example throughput or call robustness.

Also the uplink, for example the TX (transmission) in the UE, may beincluded into the decision, like described in the following.

The best antenna mode for DL (downlink) and UL (uplink) may differ. Forexample, in the DL, the UE may be connected to only one cell for HSDPA,and to the active set for the DPCH. In the UL, also the active set maybe relevant for the DCH, but for HSUPA (High Speed Uplink PacketAccess), the EUL (enhanced uplink) active set, which may be only asubset of the DCH active set, may be relevant.

Rx (receive or reception) and Tx (transmission) requests may be combinedfor antenna mode testing.

It may be assumed that there is an indicator for the best antenna modeseen by the TX (for example according to what has been described below).If there is no Rx indicator, this Tx indicator may serve as singlecontrol mechanism for the antenna mode.

If an Rx indicator exists as well, for example like described above, adecision and prioritization between the indicators may be necessary.There may be also several Rx indicators (for example for DPCH and HSDPA)and TX indicators (for example DCH and HSUPA) which may have to beconsidered. It may be assumed for simplicity that these may be combinedseparately per Rx and Tx.

Then, when only HSUPA and not HSDPA is active, the Tx indicator may havepriority, and when only HSDPA or HSDPA and HSUPA are active, the Rxindicator may have priority. By active it may be referred to either theactive reception and/or transmission of packets or just theestablishment of the respective HSDPA and HSUPA bearers.

Furthermore, a weighting of the Tx and Rx indicators may be provided,for example based on the amount of data to be transmitted in UL and DL.

Furthermore, Rx and Tx may each have the possibility to override thedecision in case of a critical situations, for example close to a calldrop, Tx power at maximum, or high TX power generating too much heat.

FIG. 42 shows a flow diagram 4200 illustrating a method for controllinga radio communication device. In 4202, the radio communication devicemay execute a control software or control firmware of a modem of theradio communication device. In 4212, the radio communication device mayperform reception of data. In 4216, the radio communication device mayperform transmission of data. In 4204, the radio communication devicemay determine information on a system configuration, for exampleinformation indicating whether HSDPA and/or HSUPA are active. In 4206,the radio communication device may execute an antenna mode decisioncircuit. In 4214, the radio communication device may indicate an RXindicator for the antenna mode. In 4218, the radio communication devicemay determine a Tx indicator for the antenna mode. An override indicatorthe may be transmitted from the receiver, like indicated by an arrowfrom 4212 to 4208, and from the transmitter, like indicated by an arrowfrom 4216 to 4208. In 4208, the radio communication device maydetermine, whether an emergency override should be performed. In 4210,the radio communication device may set an antenna mode. The set antennamode may have influence on the reception of data, like indicated by anarrow from 4210 to 4212, and on the transmission of data, like indicatedby an arrow from 4210 to 4216.

The radio communication device may select (or may switch) an antennamode according to a lowest transmit power, like will be described inmore detail below.

One criterion for selection of antenna mode based on a Tx parameter maybe to select the antenna mode, which yields the lowest transmit power.The transmit power in the UE may be controlled by the uplink powercontrol (ULPC). A lower transmit power may mean a better reception ofthe uplink signal by the respective base stations of the network.

A lower transmit power may have several benefits for the UE and the NW(network): Lower Tx power may mean for example:

-   -   less interference in the uplink for the NW/the other users;    -   more headroom towards the max Tx power limit for degrading        conditions;    -   more headroom towards the max Tx power limit for additional        throughput; and/or    -   less power used from the battery, which may for example provide        longer talk time. High Tx powers may dominate the power        consumption.

FIG. 43 shows a flow diagram 4300 illustrating a method for a radiocommunication device. In 4302, the radio communication device may startan antenna mode test sequence. In 4304, the radio communication devicemay operate an antenna mode test control circuit; for example theantenna mode test control circuit may select antenna modes for testing,for example may select all antennas in a round-robin fashion. In 4306,the radio communication device may determine whether the test iscomplete. In case testing is not complete, processing may proceed in4310. In 4310, the radio communication device may witch to the selectedantenna mode (in other words: to the antenna mode selected for testing).In 4312, the radio communication device may measure the TX power. Theradio communication device may store the measurement results in 4314.After 4312, processing may proceed in 4304. In case it is determined in4306 that testing is complete, processing may proceed in 4308. In 4308,the radio communication device may select the final (in other words: thebest found) antenna mode, based on the measurement results, for examplebased on the results stored in 4314.

A simple scheme may be provided, for example round robin measurements ofall modes. Applying what has been described above to the uplink, theremay also be provided further schemes, for example to reduce the numberof tested modes or to stop testing in certain conditions.

The radio communication device may select an antenna mode consideringcell specific information.

As described above, a reduced Tx power may result in a reducedinterference and thus increased cell or network capacity. Interferenceand capacity may also be (implicit) optimization criteria.

The antenna mode with the lowest Tx power may not be the antenna modewith the lowest interference to neighbor cells, because the UE may beconnected to several NodeBs in the uplink and one NodeB, for example theone where the antenna mode mainly points to, may dominate the Tx powercontrol.

However, all NodeBs to which the UE is connected in the uplink, may sendindependent information about their reception quality to the UE, forexample in terms of transmit power control (TPC) bits, which may provideinformation indicating an instruction for power UP or power DOWN (inother words: whether the transmission power for the respective radiocommunication device should be increased or decreased) and for HSUPAgrants for the allowed throughput.

For the best optimization with respect to cell or network capacity,maximization and interference minimization the UE may consider theprovided NodeB specific information and may not just consider the singlecombined TX power value.

The radio communication device may select an antenna mode according tohighest uplink throughput or ACK/NACK (acknowledgement/negativeacknowledgement) rate.

Besides the TX power as described above, also the throughput may betaken directly as criterion for optimization. For example, the radiocommunication device may measure the throughput directly during the testphases of the different antennas modes and then may take the antennamode (in other words: may choose the antenna mode), which showed thehighest throughput. Or the radio communication device may monitor thegrant (an indicator for allowed HSUPA transmission rate), and may selectthe antenna mode with the highest grant.

Another indirect criterion may be the ACK/NACK rate for the HARQ (HybridAutomatic Repeat Request) processes of the uplink packets. The radiocommunication device may choose the antenna mode with the highest ACKrate, and this may indicate the most reliable uplink transmission, whichmay yield the most efficient uplink transmission.

Measurement patterns described herein for the downlink may be applied.

For the measurement pattern, in other words for when antenna modemeasurements are done and which modes are measured, devices and methodsmay be applied like in what is described herein. They may also beapplied in the uplink. For example, the radio communication device maystart antenna mode measurement in the idle phases of HSUPA or the radiocommunication device may stop antenna mode measurements when animportant control message is transmitted on the signaling radio bearer(SRB).

Also for prioritization and combining of potentially more than oneindicator from the Tx, similar devices and methods like described abovefor the downlink may be applied.

It will be understood that the indicators described above may becombined for UL and DL or may be provided in a prioritized combinationof UL and DL.

An emergency trigger for antenna mode in TX, for example based on max(maximum) TX power reached, may be provided, like will be described inmore detail below.

Like for the downlink, there may be also emergency triggers in theuplink, which may trigger an antenna mode measurement, for example whenthe UE is in a time interval based measurement mode. Such a trigger maybe or may include for example:

-   -   reaching max TX power;    -   too many NACK received and/or too many retransmission;    -   an indicator by an application that soon a large data packet is        transmitted;    -   if uplink data is indicated as not urgent (for example push        email) and the uplink (HSUPA) is otherwise idle, the radio        communication device may hold the uplink data until the radio        communication device may select the best antenna mode and then        may transmit it to use the uplink most efficiently.

An optimized antenna mode for transmit diversity may be provided likefor receive diversity described above.

Also for the uplink, diversity schemes like MIMO may be provided. Forexample, for UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System),closed-loop transmit diversity (CLTD) may be provided. Schemes likedescribed above may be applied, for example:

-   -   Optimizing the two antennas jointly if both are active, for        example with respect to transmit power or throughput; and/or    -   If the radio communication device applies a dynamic transmit        diversity scheme and only one antenna is required to be active,        the radio communication device may choose the best mode of all        antennas.

It will be understood that what is described herein may be combined, forexample depending on other additional parameters described above, orwith a pre-determined priority assigned to pre-determined aspects.

In the above, the TX of the UE and antenna mode testing strategies forit have been described.

What has been described above may for example focus on throughput orcall robustness.

In the following, it will be described how the radio communicationdevice may use the advanced antennas (in other words: the antennas whichmay be configured to operate in a plurality of operation modes) also formeasurements. This may be for the measurements during an activeconnection (for example for searching cells for handovers), which may becalled “connected mode” in the following, and while not having an activeconnection (for example waiting for paging), which may be referred to as“idle mode” (which is not to be confused with the “real” IDLE state offor example UMTS).

PLMN (Public Land Mobile Network) and/or PSSI (physical signal strengthindicator) search may be enhanced by applying different antenna modes.

The advanced antennas may be used to improve the speed of PSSI scan/PLMNsearch, for example the camping on a network after switching on themobile, crossing a border and the need to find the new network there, orcoming back for service recovery.

As an example, when scanning through the frequencies for PSSI/PLMNsearch, the UE may scan through the antenna modes as well. The detailsmay depend on the used frequency scanning strategy. There may beprovided for example the following mechanisms:

a) Whenever the radio communication device scans a frequency, the radiocommunication device may try all antenna modes round robin.

b) First the radio communication device may try all frequencies on oneantenna mode. Only if this was not successful, the radio communicationdevice may start the next round of frequency measurements on the nextantenna mode.

c) In each scanned frequency, the radio communication device may do ashort round robin scan of all or a selected number of modes to determinethe one with the highest energy, and then the radio communication devicemay do the full scan for this frequency with the best antenna mode.

d) The radio communication device may do a round robin scan of allantenna modes on one frequency and then the radio communication devicemay apply the best antenna mode also to potentially following scans ofnearby frequencies, for example the frequencies in the same frequencyband.

e) When the radio communication device found a PLMN, but this is not thedesired PLMN (Home PLMN, preferred roaming PLMN, . . . ), then the radiocommunication device may find the best antenna mode for the found PLMN,and then the radio communication device may continue searching for apreferred PLMN with this antenna mode. Co-location of NodeBs, shieldingof the UE, for example by a hand, may make it likely that also for thedesired PLMN, this antenna mode may be a good choice.

f) When doing narrowband scans to search for a wideband signal (forexample 200 kHz steps for a 5 MHz signal), the radio communicationdevice may switch the antennas round robin for each narrowband step, sothat preferably each antenna mode may be covered inside the widebandsignal. Then, the radio communication device may select the best antennamode for the remaining scanning or PLMN reading. The radio communicationdevice may test different modes for different frequencies.

Depending on likeliness that something is found in a specific scanduring the PSSI/PLMN search, the search strategy may be adapted also interms of the antenna modes are scanned or not. For example, if searchingon the last frequency the UE was camped on, or searching the frequenciesof the provider of the SIM, the chances to find something fast may behigh. Thus, the overhead may be spent to scan through the antenna modes,to make sure that these frequencies are covered reliably. On other lesslikely frequencies, the radio communication device may try only oneantenna mode per antenna, for example according to what is describedherein.

The radio communication device may search antenna modes according to asmart scheme during idle mode to improve measurements and keep the UE inthe same network, like will be described below.

In idle mode, the UE may be camped to a certain cell. When it movesthrough the network, the UE may have to switch cells. At the edge of thenetwork, the signal may get very week and the UE may try to do areselection to another network, for example from 3G to 2G (secondgeneration), or from 3G to 3G near a border between countries. This mayresult in roaming charges, because the UE may leave the home (orpreferred) network. To reduce this problem, idle mode RxDiv may beprovided. However, this may desire that the UE is RxDiv capable, whichcheap and/or small form factor UEs may not be. With the advancedantenna, a similar effect may be achieved for a single antenna UE, andfor RxDiv-capable UEs the performance could be further enhanced.

A method may be as follows:

-   -   In normal conditions, the UE may scan round robin all antenna        modes during the measurement intervals, for example in each        measurement, the radio communication device may use one mode,        and after the gap at the next measurement instance, the radio        communication device may use the next antenna mode.    -   When the received signal strength drops close to or below a        threshold (for example for reselection), the UE may switch to        the best antenna mode it had stored from the previous round        robin measurements.    -   Only when it drops below the threshold also with this mode, it        may do a quick scan (for example not necessarily waiting for the        measurement intervals, but directly in one consecutive mode),        across all antenna modes, to see if meanwhile the antenna mode        yields a performance above the threshold. If yes, the UE may        switch to that antenna mode and may wait again until it drops        below the threshold.    -   Only when no antenna mode with a performance above the threshold        is found, the UE may take the action (for example searching for        reselection networks) required when dropping below the threshold        (here what has been described above for PSSI/PLMN scan may be        applied).    -   The UE may continue to scan round robin on the old network and        once one antenna modes pushes the UE above the threshold, it may        stick to this mode again and may resume the behavior when being        above the threshold.    -   Once the UE is a certain hysteresis distance above from the        threshold, it may switch again to the original round robin        scheme in good conditions.

The signal strength could be for example values like RSSI (ReceivedSignal Strength Indication), RSCP (Received Signal Code Power), or anEdo (carrier-to-noise ratio).

FIG. 44 shows a flow diagram 4400 illustrating a method for a radiocommunication device. In 4402, the radio communication device maydetermine, whether a value, for example a value indicating a signalstrength, is above a pre-determined threshold. In case the value isabove the threshold, processing may proceed in 4428. In 4428, the radiocommunication device may switch to a next antenna mode, for example in around-robin fashion. In 4424, the radio communication device may measurethe value for the antenna mode, and may store it in a list. In case theradio communication device may determines in 4402 that the value is notabove the threshold, processing may proceed in 4404. In 4404, the radiocommunication device may select the best antenna mode from the storedlist. In 4406, the radio communication device may measure the value andmay store it in the list. In 4408, the radio communication device maydetermine, whether the value is above a pre-determined threshold. Incase the value is above the threshold, processing may proceed in 4422.In 4422, the radio communication device may determine, whether the valueis above the sum of the threshold and a pre-determined hysteresis value.In case the value is above the sum of the threshold and thepre-determined hysteresis value, processing may proceed in 4402,otherwise in 4406. In case it is determined in 4408 that the value isnot above the threshold, processing may proceed in 4410. In 4410, theradio communication device may perform measurements of all modes and maystore the results (in other words: the values) in the list. In 4412, theradio communication device may determine, whether the best value isabove the threshold. In case the value is above the threshold,processing may proceed in 4426. In 4426, the radio communication devicemay perform measurements of all modes and may store the results (inother words: the values) in the list. In case the radio communicationdevice determines in 4412 that the value is not above the threshold,processing may proceed in 4414. In 4414, the radio communication devicemay declare “below threshold”, and may start respective processing (orrespective sequences). In 4416, the radio communication device mayswitch to a next antenna mode, for example in a round-robin fashion. In4418, the radio communication device may measure the values for theantenna mode to which the radio communication device has been switchedin 4416, and may store the measured value in the list. In 4420, theradio communication device may determine whether the best value is abovethe threshold. In case the value is above the threshold, processing mayproceed in 4422, otherwise in 4416.

The radio communication device may switch the antenna modes through toselect the best antenna mode for the reception of PICH (paging indicatorchannel) and/or a PCH (paging channel).

A task of the UE in the idle mode may be to the listen to pagings, forexample monitoring the paging indicator channel (PICH) and in case ofpositive paging indicator (PI) and reading the paging channel (PCH).

A problem may be that there may be false alarms on the PICH or CRC(cyclic redundancy check) errors when reading the PCH. In case oferrors, the paging information PICH and PCH may be repeated a few times.To improve the performance, the advanced antenna may be provided withdifferent antenna modes, like will be described below.

—Assuming a Negative PI:

During the normal idle mode when no PI is detected, for example theround robin scheme described above for normal conditions may be applied.Or to be more often on the best antenna mode, the radio communicationdevice may use the best antenna mode for a pre-determined time and theradio communication device may start antenna mode measurements only inlonger intervals, for example triggered by time or by the signalstrength of the used antenna mode dropping by a pre-determined valuebelow the recent maximum value. The radio communication device may dothe antenna mode measurements of this update phase at the normalmeasurement intervals or directly back-to-back, with keeping thereceiver on longer at one measurement instance.

—Assuming a Positive PI:

If the PCH is decoded correctly, no action may be necessary as well andthe UE may switch to the connected state. However, if the time betweensuccessful PCH reading and call setup may be large enough, the radiocommunication device may use this time span to search for better antennamodes to use the best mode at call setup.

If the PCH is not decoded correctly, this may be a false alarm on the PIor bad performance of the PCH. To solve that, the UE may switch toanother antenna mode for the next PI instance. Another way is leavingthe receiver on a little bit longer to scan all antenna modes in the gapbetween the PI, and to use the best antenna mode for the next PI/PCHreception. To increase the accuracy further, the radio communicationdevice may do this scan also not after the failed PICH/PCH reception,but directly before the following PICH/PCH reception, for examplestarting the receiver earlier.

It is to be noted that PI and PCH may refer to UMTS, but that what isdescribed herein may also be applied to other standards. For example,the distance between PI and PCH may be very short. But if a wirelessstandard has a sufficiently large gap between PI and PCH, the UE mayalso search for the best antenna mode between PI and PCH. This maydepends on how long the antenna mode measurements take.

The radio communication device may determine the optimum antenna modefor neighbor cells to use these cells directly with the best mode aftera handover to this cell.

In the connected mode, the UE may be receiving data from one or morecells. In UMTS, for example, the radio communication device may receivethe DPCH from all the up to 6 cells in the so-called active set. In LTE(Long Term Evolution), the UE may be connected to only one cell.

As the UE is moving, it may desire to switch to new cells, for examplemay desire a hard handover to another cell or adding a cell to theactive set. To find and select the proper new cell, the UE may besearching and measuring other cells from which it receives a signal. Anew cell may usually be considered (for hard handover or addition to theactive set) when its signal strength (for example RSSI, RSCP, EcNo) getsabove a pre-determined threshold.

To find the best cell, the UE may scan round robin through the antennamodes while measuring the neighbor cells. Also the radio communicationdevice may measure the own active cell or cells to make the propercomparison to the neighbor cells. For all cells, the radio communicationdevice may store the measurements per antenna mode and then the radiocommunication device may take the best measurement per cell forevaluation, or for example the radio communication device may take theaverage of the two or some best modes.

It will be understood that, as only one antenna mode at the same timemay be active and the radio communication device may perform themeasurement in connected mode in parallel to the normal data reception,the swapping of the antenna mode may affect also the main datareception. Thus, if a bad mode is tried, the data reception may degrade.This may be considered. It may be acceptable in some situations (forexample in a downlink power controlled system, where the base stationmay quickly compensate), but may not be acceptable in others (forexample close to a call drop), like described in more detail above.

Besides selecting the best cell for the handover, the radiocommunication device may directly use the new cell with the best antennamode, as this may have been determined before handover (or addition tothe active set). It is to be noted, that, for HSDPA, a handover may alsobe the switch of the HSDPA serving cell, where the new cell may alreadybe part of the DPCH active set. For example, for this, the antenna modesmay not be scanned through the whole time, for example for themeasurements, but a measurement of the antenna modes may just be startedwhen the radio communication device adds the new cell. When the UE wantsa new cell for downlink reception, it may desire to request it from thenetwork. Between this request transmitted by the UE and the assignmentof the new cell by the network, there may be enough time to scan some orall antenna modes. Thus, the antenna modes may not have to becontinuously scanned, but just when the new cell is requested to beadded, that is when the cell will be definitely used.

The radio communication device may test antenna modes duringmeasurements in compressed mode gaps and may apply the best mode to theongoing data reception.

In pre-determined situations, for example when the reception is suchdegraded that a reselection to another frequency or RAT (radio accesstechnologies) is necessary, the UE may be requested to do measurementson other frequencies or RATs. This may not be done in parallel to theongoing data reception, because the RF (for example the radio frequencycircuits) may handle only one frequency. For this, compressed mode (CM)schemes or other techniques may be applied. Here reception gaps may beincluded by the network in the data reception, which this may allow theUE to measure other frequencies and/or RATs.

While the UE may not employ scanning of the antenna modes in the ongoingdata reception (because it may not risk a degradation, like describedabove), the UE may scan through the antenna modes in the compressed modemeasurements, because here there may be no risk for a degradation forthe data reception. If the UE finds in the compressed mode measurementsa better antenna mode than the one currently used by the data reception,it may apply this found antenna mode to the data reception. Theperformance of an antenna mode may be heavily influenced by thesurrounding of the phone, for example where the hand or a desk iscovering the phone. Thus, the best mode found in the compressed modemeasurements may have a high likelihood of being the best mode for thedata reception. Thus, the risk may be low to have a degraded performanceby switching to the new antenna mode.

FIG. 10 shows a radio communication device 1000. The radio communicationdevice 1000 may include an antenna 1002 (or an antenna circuit 1002)configured to operate in a plurality of operation modes. The radiocommunication device 1000 may further include a receiver 1004 (or areceiver circuit 1004) configured to receive a first channel signal anda second channel signal using the antenna 1002. The radio communicationdevice 1000 may further include a mode switching circuit 1006 configuredto switch an operation mode of the antenna if the first channel signalfulfills a first channel specific criterion or configured to switch anoperation mode of the antenna if the second channel signal fulfills asecond channel specific criterion. The antenna 1002, the receiver 1004and the mode switching circuit 1006 may be coupled with each other, forexample via a connection 1008, for example an optical connection or anelectrical connection, such as for example a cable or a computer bus orvia any other suitable electrical connection to exchange electricalsignals.

The antenna 1002 may include or may be an adaptive antenna array.

The antenna 1002 may include or may be a single antenna.

The plurality of operation modes of the antenna 1002 may include aplurality of operation modes of different reception patterns.

The first channel signal may be or may include a signal of a dedicatedpower controlled channel.

The dedicated power controlled channel may be used for voice calls.

The dedicated power controlled channel may include or may be a DedicatedPhysical Channel (DPCH).

The second channel signal may include or may be a signal of a sharedchannel.

The shared channel may be used for data connections.

The shared channel may be a High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA).

The mode switching circuit 1006 may further be configured to switch anoperation mode of the antenna 1002 independent of the first channelsignal if the second channel signal fulfills the second channel specificcriterion.

The mode switching circuit 1006 may further be configured to switch anoperation mode of the antenna 1002 from a presently used operation modeto another operation mode independent of the first channel signal if thesecond channel signal fulfills the second channel specific criterion,when a reception quality of the first channel signal is above apre-determined threshold, and to switch an operation mode of the antenna1002 from a presently used operation mode to another operation mode,when reception quality of the first channel signal is below apre-determined threshold.

The first channel specific criterion may include or may be at least onecriterion of the following criteria: a Channel Quality Indicator; aReceived Signal Strength Indication; a Received Signal Code Power; acarrier-to-noise ratio; an out-of-sync criterion; number of CyclicRedundancy Check errors; a power UP request of a transmission powercontrol mechanism; an average of power UP requests of a transmissionpower control mechanism; a power DOWN request of a transmission powercontrol mechanism; an average of power DOWN requests of a transmissionpower control mechanism; and a Dedicated Physical Channelsignal-to-noise ratio.

The second channel specific criterion may include or may be at least onecriterion of the following criteria: a Channel Quality Indicator; aReceived Signal Strength Indication; a Received Signal Code Power; acarrier-to-noise ratio; an out-of-sync criterion; and number of CyclicRedundancy Check errors.

FIG. 11 shows a radio communication device 1100. The radio communicationdevice 1100 may include an antenna 1102 (or an antenna circuit 1102)configured to operate in a plurality of operation modes. The radiocommunication device 1100 may further include a transmitter 1104 (or atransmitter circuit 1104) configured to transmit a first channel signaland a second channel signal using the antenna 1102. The radiocommunication device 1100 may further include a mode switching circuit1106 configured to switch an operation mode of the antenna 1102 if thefirst channel signal fulfills a first channel specific criterion orconfigured to switch an operation mode of the antenna 1102 if the secondchannel signal fulfills a second channel specific criterion. The antenna1102, the transmitter 1104 and the mode switching circuit 1106 may becoupled with each other, for example via a connection 1108, for examplean optical connection or an electrical connection, such as for example acable or a computer bus or via any other suitable electrical connectionto exchange electrical signals.

The antenna 1102 may include or may be an adaptive antenna array.

The antenna 1102 may include or may be a single antenna.

The plurality of operation modes of the antenna 1102 may include or maybe a plurality of operation modes of different transmitting patterns.

The first channel signal may include or may be a signal of a dedicatedpower controlled channel.

The dedicated power controlled channel may be used for voice calls.

The dedicated power controlled channel may be a Dedicated PhysicalChannel (DPCH).

The second channel signal may be or may include a signal of a sharedchannel.

The shared channel may be used for data connections.

The shared channel may be a High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA).

The mode switching circuit 1106 may further be configured to switch anoperation mode of the antenna 1102 independent of the first channelsignal if the second channel signal fulfills the second channel specificcriterion.

The mode switching circuit 1106 may further be configured to switch anoperation mode of the antenna 1102 from a presently used operation modeto another operation mode independent of the first channel signal if thesecond channel signal fulfills the second channel specific criterion,when a reception quality of the first channel signal is above apre-determined threshold, and to switch an operation mode of the antenna1102 from a presently used operation mode to another operation mode,when a reception quality of the first channel signal is below apre-determined threshold.

The first channel specific criterion may include or may be at least onecriterion of the following criteria: a Channel Quality Indicator; aReceived Signal Strength Indication; a Received Signal Code Power; acarrier-to-noise ratio; an out-of-sync criterion; number of CyclicRedundancy Check errors; a power UP request of a transmission powercontrol mechanism; an average of power UP requests of a transmissionpower control mechanism; a power DOWN request of a transmission powercontrol mechanism; an average of power DOWN requests of a transmissionpower control mechanism; and a Dedicated Physical Channelsignal-to-noise ratio.

The second channel specific criterion may include or may be at least onecriterion of the following criteria: a Channel Quality Indicator; aReceived Signal Strength Indication; a Received Signal Code Power; acarrier-to-noise ratio; an out-of-sync criterion; and number of CyclicRedundancy Check errors.

FIG. 12 shows a radio communication device 1200. The radio communicationdevice 1200 may include an antenna 1202 (or antenna circuit 1202)configured to operate in a plurality of operation modes. The radiocommunication device 1200 may further include a mode switching circuit1204 configured to switch an operation mode of the antenna 1202. Theradio communication device 1200 may further include a mode switchingblocking circuit 1206 configured to prevent switching of the operationmode of the antenna 1202. The antenna 1202, the mode switching circuit1204, and the mode switching blocking circuit 1206 may be coupled witheach other, for example via a connection 1208, for example an opticalconnection or an electrical connection, such as for example a cable or acomputer bus or via any other suitable electrical connection to exchangeelectrical signals.

The antenna 1202 may include or may be an adaptive antenna array.

The antenna 1202 may include or may be a single antenna.

The plurality of operation modes of the antenna 1202 may include or maybe a plurality of operation modes of different reception patterns.

FIG. 13 shows a radio communication device 1300. The radio communicationdevice 1300 may, similar to the radio communication device 1200 of FIG.12, include an antenna 1202 configured to operate in a plurality ofoperation modes. The radio communication device 1300 may, similar to theradio communication device 1200 of FIG. 12, further include a modeswitching circuit 364 configured to switch an operation mode of theantenna 1202. The radio communication device 1300 may, similar to theradio communication device 1200 of FIG. 12, further include a modeswitching blocking circuit 1206 configured to prevent switching of theoperation mode of the antenna 1202. The radio communication device 1300may further include a reception quality determination circuit 1302, likewill be described in more detail below. The radio communication device1300 may further include a system state determination circuit 1304, likewill be described in more detail below. The antenna 1202, the modeswitching circuit 1204, the mode switching blocking circuit 1206, thereception quality determination circuit 1302, and the system statedetermination circuit 1304 may be coupled with each other, for examplevia a connection 1306, for example an optical connection or anelectrical connection, such as for example a cable or a computer bus orvia any other suitable electrical connection to exchange electricalsignals.

The reception quality determination circuit 1302 may be configured todetermine a quality of reception of data using the antenna 1202.

The mode switching blocking circuit 1206 may further be configured toprevent switching of the operation mode of the antenna 1202 based on thedetermined quality of reception.

The radio communication device 1300 may further include a transmissionquality determination circuit (not shown) configured to determine aquality of transmission of data using the antenna 1202.

The mode switching blocking circuit 1206 may further be configured toprevent switching of the operation mode of the antenna 1202 based on thedetermined quality of transmission.

The system state determination circuit 1304 may be configured todetermine a system state of the radio communication device 1300.

The mode switching blocking circuit 1206 may further be configured toprevent switching of the operation mode of the antenna 1202 based on thedetermined system state.

FIG. 14 shows a radio communication device 1400. The radio communicationdevice 1400 may include a first antenna 1402 (or first antenna circuit1402) configured to operate in a plurality of operation modes. The radiocommunication device 1400 may further include a second antenna 1404 (orsecond antenna circuit 1404). The radio communication device 1400 mayfurther include a diversity mode selection circuit 1406 configured toselect a diversity mode as a diversity-off mode in which one (forexample only one) of the first antenna 1402 and the second antenna 1404is operating and to select a diversity mode as a diversity-on mode inwhich both the first antenna 1402 and the second antenna 1404 areoperating. The radio communication device 1400 may further include amode switching circuit 1408 configured to switch an operation mode ofthe first antenna 1402 based on the selected diversity mode. The firstantenna 1402, the second antenna 1404, the diversity mode selectioncircuit 1406, and the mode switching circuit 1408 may be coupled witheach other, for example via a connection 1410, for example an opticalconnection or an electrical connection, such as for example a cable or acomputer bus or via any other suitable electrical connection to exchangeelectrical signals.

The first antenna 1402 may include or may be an adaptive antenna array.

The first antenna 1402 may include or may be a single antenna.

The plurality of operation modes of the first antenna 1402 may includeor may be a plurality of operation modes of different receptionpatterns.

The diversity mode selection circuit 1406 may further be configured toprepare for selecting the diversity mode as the diversity-on mode whenthe mode switching circuit switches an operation mode of the firstantenna 1402.

The diversity mode selection circuit 1406 may further be configured toselect the diversity mode as the diversity-on mode when the modeswitching circuit switches an operation mode of the first antenna 1402.

The second antenna 1404 may be configured to operate in a plurality ofoperation modes. The mode switching circuit 1408 may further beconfigured to switch an operation mode of the second antenna 1404.

The mode switching circuit 1408 may be configured to switch an operationmode of the second antenna 1404 based on the operation mode of the firstantenna 1402.

FIG. 15 shows a radio communication device 1500. The radio communicationdevice 1500 may, similar to the radio communication device 1400 of FIG.14, include a first antenna 1402 (or first antenna circuit 1402)configured to operate in a plurality of operation modes. The radiocommunication device 1500 may, similar to the radio communication device1400 of FIG. 14, further include a second antenna 1404 (or secondantenna circuit 1404). The radio communication device 1500 may, similarto the radio communication device 1400 of FIG. 14, further include adiversity mode selection circuit 1406 configured to select a diversitymode as a diversity-off mode in which one (for example only one) of thefirst antenna 1402 and the second antenna 1404 is operating and toselect a diversity mode as a diversity-on mode in which both the firstantenna 1402 and the second antenna 1404 are operating. The radiocommunication device 1500 may, similar to the radio communication device1400 of FIG. 14, further include a mode switching circuit 1408configured to switch an operation mode of the first antenna 1402 basedon the selected diversity mode. The radio communication device 1500 mayfurther include a sensor 1502 (or a sensor circuit 1502), like will bedescribed in more detail below. The first antenna 1402, the secondantenna 1404, the diversity mode selection circuit 1406, the modeswitching circuit 1408, and the sensor 1502 may be coupled with eachother, for example via a connection 1504, for example an opticalconnection or an electrical connection, such as for example a cable or acomputer bus or via any other suitable electrical connection to exchangeelectrical signals.

The sensor 1502 may be configured to determine a usage scenario of theradio communication device 1500. The mode switching circuit 1408 mayfurther be configured to switch an operation mode of the first antenna1402 based on the determined usage scenario.

FIG. 16 shows a radio communication device 1600. The radio communicationdevice 1600 may include a first antenna 1602 (or first antenna circuit1602) configured to operate in a plurality of operation modes andconfigured to receive signals from a plurality of send antennas. Theradio communication device 1600 may further include a second antenna1604 (or second antenna circuit 1604) configured to receive signals fromthe plurality of send antennas. The radio communication device 1600 mayfurther include a channel matrix determination circuit 1606 configuredto determine a channel matrix for the first antenna 1602 and the secondantenna 1604 and the plurality of send antennas. The radio communicationdevice 1600 may further include a mode switching circuit 1608 configuredto switch an operation mode of the first antenna 1602 based on thedetermined channel matrix. The first antenna 1602, the second antenna1604, the channel determination circuit 1606, and the mode switchingcircuit 1608 may be coupled with each other, for example via aconnection 1610, for example an optical connection or an electricalconnection, such as for example a cable or a computer bus or via anyother suitable electrical connection to exchange electrical signals.

The first antenna 1602 may include or may be an adaptive antenna array.

The first antenna 1602 may include or may be a single antenna.

The plurality of operation modes of the first antenna 1602 may includeor may be a plurality of operation modes of different receptionpatterns.

The mode switching circuit 1608 may further be configured to switch anoperation mode of the first antenna 1602 to increase the rank of thechannel matrix.

The mode switching circuit 1608 may further be configured to switch anoperation mode of the first antenna 1602 to decrease the rank of thechannel matrix.

The second antenna 1604 may further be configured to operate in aplurality of operation modes. The mode switching circuit 1608 mayfurther be configured to switch an operation mode of the second antenna1604 based on the determined channel matrix.

The mode switching circuit 1608 may further be configured to determinewhether an operation mode of the first antenna 1602 or an operation modeof the second antenna 804 is to be switched based on the determinedchannel matrix.

The mode switching circuit 1608 may further be configured to determinewhether an operation mode of the first antenna 1602 or an operation modeof the second antenna 1604 is to be switched based on the influence ofthe first antenna 1602 and the second antenna 1604 on the channelmatrix.

FIG. 17 shows a radio communication device 1700. The radio communicationdevice 1700 may include a first antenna 1702 (or first antenna circuit1702) configured to operate in a plurality of operation modes andconfigured to transmit signals to a plurality of send antennas. Theradio communication device 1700 may further include a second antenna1704 (or second antenna circuit 1704) configured to transmit signals tothe plurality of send antennas. The radio communication device 1700 mayfurther include a channel matrix determination circuit 1706 configuredto determine a channel matrix for the first antenna 1702 and the secondantenna 1704 and the plurality of send antennas. The radio communicationdevice 1700 may further include a mode switching circuit 1708 configuredto switch an operation mode of the first antenna based on the determinedchannel matrix. The first antenna 1702, the second antenna 1704, thechannel determination circuit 1706, and the mode switching circuit 908may be coupled with each other, for example via a connection 1710, forexample an optical connection or an electrical connection, such as forexample a cable or a computer bus or via any other suitable electricalconnection to exchange electrical signals.

The first antenna 1702 may include or may be an adaptive antenna array.

The first antenna 1702 may include or may be a single antenna.

The plurality of operation modes of the first antenna 1702 may includeor may be a plurality of operation modes of different transmissionpatterns.

The mode switching circuit 1708 may further be configured to switch anoperation mode of the first antenna 1702 so that the rank of the channelmatrix increases.

The mode switching circuit 1708 may further be configured to switch anoperation mode of the first antenna 1702 so that the rank of the channelmatrix decreases.

The second antenna 1704 may further be configured to operate in aplurality of operation modes. The mode switching circuit 1708 mayfurther be configured to switch an operation mode of the second antenna1704 based on the determined channel matrix.

The mode switching circuit 1708 may further be configured to determinewhether an operation mode of the first antenna 1702 or an operation modeof the second antenna 1704 is to be switched based on the determinedchannel matrix.

The mode switching circuit 1708 may further be configured to determinewhether an operation mode of the first antenna 1702 or an operation modeof the second antenna 1704 is to be switched based on the influence ofthe first antenna 1702 and the second antenna 1704 on the channelmatrix.

FIG. 18 shows a radio communication device 1800. The radio communicationdevice 1800 may include an antenna 1802 (or antenna circuit 1802)configured to operate in a plurality of operation modes. The radiocommunication device 1800 may further include an interference determiner1804 (or interference determination circuit 1804) configured todetermine interference of data received or sent by the antenna 1802 withanother radio communication device. The radio communication device 1800may further include a mode switching circuit 1806 configured to switchan operation mode of the antenna 1802 based on the determinedinterference. The antenna 1802, the interference determiner 1804, andthe mode switching circuit 1806 may be coupled with each other, forexample via a connection 1808, for example an optical connection or anelectrical connection, such as for example a cable or a computer bus orvia any other suitable electrical connection to exchange electricalsignals.

The antenna 1802 may include or may be an adaptive antenna array.

The antenna 1802 may include or may be a single antenna.

The plurality of operation modes of the antenna 1802 may include or maybe a plurality of operation modes of different reception patterns ortransmission patterns.

The mode switching circuit 1806 may further be configured to switch anoperation mode of the antenna 1802 to decrease the interference.

FIG. 19 shows a radio communication device 1900. The radio communicationdevice 1900 may include an antenna 1902 (or an antenna circuit 1902)configured to operate in a plurality of operation modes. The radiocommunication device 1900 may further include a transmitter 1904 (or atransmitter circuit 1904) configured to transmit data using the antenna1902. The radio communication device 1900 may further include a modeswitching circuit 1906 configured to switch an operation mode of theantenna 1902 at least if the transmitter 1904 fulfills a predeterminedtransmitter criterion. The antenna 1902, the transmitter 1904, and themode switching circuit 1906 may be coupled with each other, for examplevia a connection 1908, for example an optical connection or anelectrical connection, such as for example a cable or a computer bus orvia any other suitable electrical connection to exchange electricalsignals.

The antenna 1902 may include or may be an adaptive antenna array.

The antenna 1902 may include or may be a single antenna.

The plurality of operation modes of the antenna 1902 may include or maybe a plurality of operation modes of different reception patterns.

The predetermined transmitter criterion may include at least onecriterion of the following criteria: transmission power consumption;throughput of the transmitter; grant of the transmitter; ACK/NACK(acknowledgement/negative acknowledgement) rate for a HARQ (HybridAutomatic Repeat Request) process, and information provided by a mobileradio base station in communication with the radio communication devicewith respect to whether the transmitter is to increase or to decreasetransmission energy.

FIG. 20 shows a radio communication device 2000. The radio communicationdevice 2000 may, similar to the radio communication device 1900 of FIG.19, include an antenna 1902 (or an antenna circuit 1902) configured tooperate in a plurality of operation modes. The radio communicationdevice 2000 may, similar to the radio communication device 1900 of FIG.19, further include a transmitter 1904 (or a transmitter circuit 1904)configured to transmit data using the antenna 1902. The radiocommunication device 2000 may, similar to the radio communication device1900 of FIG. 19, further include a mode switching circuit 1906configured to switch an operation mode of the antenna 1902 at least ifthe transmitter 1904 fulfills a predetermined transmitter criterion. Theradio communication device 2000 may further include a receiver 2002 (ora receiver circuit 2002), like described in more detail below. Theantenna 1902, the transmitter 1904, the mode switching circuit 1906, andthe receiver 2002 may be coupled with each other, for example via aconnection 2004, for example an optical connection or an electricalconnection, such as for example a cable or a computer bus or via anyother suitable electrical connection to exchange electrical signals.

The receiver 2002 may be configured to receive data using the antenna1902. The mode switching circuit 1906 may further be configured toswitch an operation mode of the antenna 1902 if the receiver 1902fulfills a predetermined receiver criterion.

FIG. 21 shows a radio communication device 2100. The radio communicationdevice 2100 may include an antenna 2102 (or an antenna circuit 2102)configured to operate in a plurality of operation modes. The radiocommunication device 2100 may further include an evaluation circuit21304 configured to evaluate a plurality of operation modes of theantenna 2102 in a plurality of cells. The radio communication device2100 may further include a selection circuit 2106 configured to select acell and an operation mode of the antenna 2102 for operation of theradio communication device 2100. The antenna 2102, the evaluationcircuit 2104, and the selection circuit 2106 may be coupled with eachother, for example via a connection 21308, for example an opticalconnection or an electrical connection, such as for example a cable or acomputer bus or via any other suitable electrical connection to exchangeelectrical signals.

The antenna 2102 may include or may be an adaptive antenna array.

The antenna 2102 may include or may be a single antenna.

The plurality of operation modes of the antenna 2102 may include or maybe a plurality of operation modes of different reception patterns ortransmission patterns.

The evaluation circuit 2104 may further be configured to first evaluatethe plurality of operation modes of the antenna 2102 in a first cell andto thereafter evaluate the plurality of operation modes of the antenna2102 in a second cell.

The evaluation circuit 2104 may further be configured to first evaluatea first operation mode of the antenna 2102 in the plurality of cells andto thereafter evaluate a second operation mode of the antenna 2102 inthe plurality of cells.

The selection circuit 2104 may further be configured to preferablyselect a cell of a presently used network.

FIG. 22 shows a radio communication device 2200. The radio communicationdevice 2200 may include an antenna 2202 (or an antenna circuit 2202)configured to operate in a plurality of operation modes. The radiocommunication device 2200 may further include a receiver 2204 (or areceiver circuit 2204) configured to receive a paging indicator. Theradio communication device 2200 may further include a mode switchingcircuit 2206 configured to switch an operation mode of the antenna basedon the received paging indicator. The antenna 2202, the receiver 2204,and the mode switching circuit 2206 may be coupled with each other, forexample via a connection 2208, for example an optical connection or anelectrical connection, such as for example a cable or a computer bus orvia any other suitable electrical connection to exchange electricalsignals.

The antenna 2202 may include or may be an adaptive antenna array.

The antenna 2202 may include or may be a single antenna.

The plurality of operation modes of the antenna 2202 may include or maybe a plurality of operation modes of different reception patterns.

FIG. 23 shows a radio communication device 2300. The radio communicationdevice 2300 may include an antenna 2302 (or an antenna circuit 2302)configured to operate in a plurality of operation modes. The radiocommunication device 2300 may further include a receiver 2304 (or areceiver circuit 2304) configured to receive data using the antenna2302. The radio communication device 2300 may further include a modeswitching circuit 2306 configured to switch an operation mode of theantenna 2302 in a reception gap of the receiver 2304. The antenna 2302,the receiver 2304, and the mode switching circuit 2306 may be coupledwith each other, for example via a connection 2308, for example anoptical connection or an electrical connection, such as for example acable or a computer bus or via any other suitable electrical connectionto exchange electrical signals.

The antenna 2302 may include or may be an adaptive antenna array.

The antenna 2302 may include or may be a single antenna.

The plurality of operation modes of the antenna 2302 may include or maybe a plurality of operation modes of different reception patterns.

FIG. 24 shows a radio communication device 1200. The radio communicationdevice 2400 may include an antenna 2402 configured to operate in aplurality of operation modes. The radio communication device 2400 mayfurther include a transmitter 2404 configured to transmit data using theantenna 2402. The radio communication device 2400 may further include amode switching circuit 2406 configured to switch an operation mode ofthe antenna 2402 in a transmission gap of the transmitter 2404. Theantenna 2402, the transmitter 2404, and the mode switching circuit 2406may be coupled with each other, for example via a connection 2408, forexample an optical connection or an electrical connection, such as forexample a cable or a computer bus or via any other suitable electricalconnection to exchange electrical signals.

The antenna 2402 may include or may be an adaptive antenna array.

The antenna 2402 may include or may be a single antenna.

The plurality of operation modes of the antenna 2402 may include or maybe a plurality of operation modes of different transmission patterns.

FIG. 25 shows a radio communication device 2500. The radio communicationdevice 2500 may include an antenna 2502 (or an antenna circuit 2502)configured to operate in a plurality of operation modes. The radiocommunication device 2500 may further include a processor 2504. Theantenna 2502 and the processor 2504 may be coupled with each other, forexample via a connection 2506, for example an optical connection or anelectrical connection, such as for example a cable or a computer bus orvia any other suitable electrical connection to exchange electricalsignals.

The processor 2504 may further be configured to receive a first channelsignal and a second channel signal using the antenna 2502. The processor2504 may further be configured to switch an operation mode of theantenna 2502 if the first channel signal fulfills a first channelspecific criterion or configured to switch an operation mode of theantenna 2502 if the second channel signal fulfills a second channelspecific criterion.

The antenna 2502 may include or may be an adaptive antenna array.

The antenna 2502 may include or may be a single antenna.

The plurality of operation modes of the antenna 2502 may include aplurality of operation modes of different reception patterns.

The first channel signal may be or may include a signal of a dedicatedpower controlled channel.

The dedicated power controlled channel may be used for voice calls.

The dedicated power controlled channel may include or may be a DedicatedPhysical Channel (DPCH).

The second channel signal may include or may be a signal of a sharedchannel.

The shared channel may be used for data connections.

The shared channel may be a High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA).

The processor 2504 may further be configured to switch an operation modeof the antenna 2502 independent of the first channel signal if thesecond channel signal fulfills the second channel specific criterion.

The processor 2504 may further be configured to switch an operation modeof the antenna 2502 from a presently used operation mode to anotheroperation mode independent of the first channel signal if the secondchannel signal fulfills the second channel specific criterion, when areception quality of the first channel signal is above a pre-determinedthreshold, and to switch an operation mode of the antenna 1302 from apresently used operation mode to another operation mode, when receptionquality of the first channel signal is below a pre-determined threshold.

The first channel specific criterion may include or may be at least onecriterion of the following criteria: a Channel Quality Indicator; aReceived Signal Strength Indication; a Received Signal Code Power; acarrier-to-noise ratio; an out-of-sync criterion; number of CyclicRedundancy Check errors; a power UP request of a transmission powercontrol mechanism; an average of power UP requests of a transmissionpower control mechanism; a power DOWN request of a transmission powercontrol mechanism; an average of power DOWN requests of a transmissionpower control mechanism; and a Dedicated Physical Channelsignal-to-noise ratio.

The second channel specific criterion may include or may be at least onecriterion of the following criteria: a Channel Quality Indicator; aReceived Signal Strength Indication; a Received Signal Code Power; acarrier-to-noise ratio; an out-of-sync criterion; and number of CyclicRedundancy Check errors.

The processor 2504 may further be configured to transmit a first channelsignal and a second channel signal using the antenna 2502. The processor2504 may further be configured to switch an operation mode of theantenna 2502 if the first channel signal fulfills a first channelspecific criterion or configured to switch an operation mode of theantenna 2502 if the second channel signal fulfills a second channelspecific criterion.

The antenna 2502 may include or may be an adaptive antenna array.

The antenna 2502 may include or may be a single antenna.

The plurality of operation modes of the antenna 2502 may include or maybe a plurality of operation modes of different transmitting patterns.

The first channel signal may include or may be a signal of a dedicatedpower controlled channel.

The dedicated power controlled channel may be used for voice calls.

The dedicated power controlled channel may be a Dedicated PhysicalChannel (DPCH).

The second channel signal may be or may include a signal of a sharedchannel.

The shared channel may be used for data connections.

The shared channel may be a High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA).

The processor 2504 may further be configured to switch an operation modeof the antenna 2502 independent of the first channel signal if thesecond channel signal fulfills the second channel specific criterion.

The processor 2504 may further be configured to switch an operation modeof the antenna 2502 from a presently used operation mode to anotheroperation mode independent of the first channel signal if the secondchannel signal fulfills the second channel specific criterion, when areception quality of the first channel signal is above a pre-determinedthreshold, and to switch an operation mode of the antenna 2502 from apresently used operation mode to another operation mode, when areception quality of the first channel signal is below a pre-determinedthreshold.

The first channel specific criterion may include or may be at least onecriterion of the following criteria: a Channel Quality Indicator; aReceived Signal Strength Indication; a Received Signal Code Power; acarrier-to-noise ratio; an out-of-sync criterion; number of CyclicRedundancy Check errors; a power UP request of a transmission powercontrol mechanism; an average of power UP requests of a transmissionpower control mechanism; a power DOWN request of a transmission powercontrol mechanism; an average of power DOWN requests of a transmissionpower control mechanism; and a Dedicated Physical Channelsignal-to-noise ratio.

The second channel specific criterion may include or may be at least onecriterion of the following criteria: a Channel Quality Indicator; aReceived Signal Strength Indication; a Received Signal Code Power; acarrier-to-noise ratio; an out-of-sync criterion; and number of CyclicRedundancy Check errors.

The processor 2504 may further be configured to switch an operation modeof the antenna 2502. The processor 2504 may further be configured toprevent switching of the operation mode of the antenna 2502.

The antenna 2502 may include or may be an adaptive antenna array.

The antenna 2502 may include or may be a single antenna.

The plurality of operation modes of the antenna 2502 may include or maybe a plurality of operation modes of different reception patterns.

The processor 2504 may further be configured to determine a quality ofreception of data using the antenna 2502.

The processor 2504 may further be configured to prevent switching of theoperation mode of the antenna 2502 based on the determined quality ofreception.

The processor 2504 may further be configured to determine a quality oftransmission of data using the antenna 2502.

The processor 2504 may further be configured to prevent switching of theoperation mode of the antenna 2502 based on the determined quality oftransmission.

The processor 2504 may further be configured to determine a system stateof the radio communication device 2500.

The processor 2504 may further be configured to prevent switching of theoperation mode of the antenna 2502 based on the determined system state.

The radio communication device 2500 may, besides the antenna 2502, whichmay also be referred to as a first antenna, include a second antenna(not shown).

The processor 2504 may further be configured to select a diversity modeas a diversity-off mode in which one (for example only one) of the firstantenna 2502 and the second antenna is operating and to select thediversity mode as a diversity-on mode in which both the first antenna2502 and the second antenna are operating. The processor 2504 mayfurther be configured to switch an operation mode of the first antenna2502 based on the selected diversity mode.

The first antenna 2502 may include or may be an adaptive antenna array.

The first antenna 2502 may include or may be a single antenna.

The plurality of operation modes of the first antenna 2502 may includeor may be a plurality of operation modes of different receptionpatterns.

The processor 2504 may further be configured to prepare for selectingthe diversity mode as the diversity-on mode when the processor 2504switches an operation mode of the first antenna 2502.

The processor 2504 may further be configured to select the diversitymode as the diversity-on mode when the processor 2504 switches anoperation mode of the first antenna 2502.

The second antenna may be configured to operate in a plurality ofoperation modes. The processor 2504 may further be configured to switchan operation mode of the second antenna.

The processor 2504 may further be configured to switch an operation modeof the second antenna based on the operation mode of the first antenna2502.

The processor 2504 may further be configured to determine a usagescenario of the radio communication device 2500. The processor 2504 mayfurther be configured to switch an operation mode of the first antenna2502 based on the determined usage scenario.

The first antenna 2502 may be configured to operate in a plurality ofoperation modes and configured to receive signals from a plurality ofsend antennas. The radio communication device 2500 may further include asecond antenna (not shown) configured to receive signals from theplurality of send antennas. The processor 2504 may further be configuredto determine a channel matrix for the first antenna 2502 and the secondantenna and the plurality of send antennas. The processor 2504 mayfurther be configured to switch an operation mode of the first antenna2502 based on the determined channel matrix.

The first antenna 2502 may include or may be an adaptive antenna array.

The first antenna 2502 may include or may be a single antenna.

The plurality of operation modes of the first antenna 2502 may includeor may be a plurality of operation modes of different receptionpatterns.

The processor 2504 may further be configured to switch an operation modeof the first antenna 2502 to increase the rank of the channel matrix.

The processor 2504 may further be configured to switch an operation modeof the first antenna 2502 to decrease the rank of the channel matrix.

The second antenna may further be configured to operate in a pluralityof operation modes. The processor 2504 may further be configured toswitch an operation mode of the second antenna based on the determinedchannel matrix.

The processor 2504 may further be configured to determine whether anoperation mode of the first antenna 2502 or an operation mode of thesecond antenna is to be switched based on the determined channel matrix.

The processor 2504 may further be configured to determine whether anoperation mode of the first antenna 2502 or an operation mode of thesecond antenna is to be switched based on the influence of the firstantenna 2502 and the second antenna on the channel matrix.

The first antenna 2502 may be configured to operate in a plurality ofoperation modes and configured to transmit signals to a plurality ofsend antennas. The radio communication device 2500 may further include asecond antenna (not shown) configured to transmit signals to theplurality of send antennas. The processor 2504 may further be configuredto determine a channel matrix for the first antenna 2502 and the secondantenna and the plurality of send antennas. The processor 2504 mayfurther be configured to switch an operation mode of the first antennabased on the determined channel matrix.

The first antenna 2502 may include or may be an adaptive antenna array.

The first antenna 2502 may include or may be a single antenna.

The plurality of operation modes of the first antenna 2502 may includeor may be a plurality of operation modes of different transmissionpatterns.

The processor 2504 may further be configured to switch an operation modeof the first antenna 2502 so that the rank of the channel matrixincreases.

The processor 2504 may further be configured to switch an operation modeof the first antenna 2502 so that the rank of the channel matrixdecreases.

The second antenna may further be configured to operate in a pluralityof operation modes. The processor 2504 may further be configured toswitch an operation mode of the second antenna based on the determinedchannel matrix.

The processor 2504 may further be configured to determine whether anoperation mode of the first antenna 2502 or an operation mode of thesecond antenna is to be switched based on the determined channel matrix.

The processor 2504 may further be configured to determine whether anoperation mode of the first antenna 2502 or an operation mode of thesecond antenna is to be switched based on the influence of the firstantenna 2502 and the second antenna on the channel matrix.

The processor 2504 may further be configured to determine interferenceof data received or sent by the antenna 2502 with another radiocommunication device. The processor 2504 may further be configured toswitch an operation mode of the antenna 2502 based on the determinedinterference.

The antenna 2502 may include or may be an adaptive antenna array.

The antenna 2502 may include or may be a single antenna.

The plurality of operation modes of the antenna 2502 may include or maybe a plurality of operation modes of different reception patterns ortransmission patterns.

The processor 2504 may further be configured to switch an operation modeof the antenna 2502 to decrease the interference.

The processor 2504 may further be configured to transmit data using theantenna 2502. The processor 2504 may further be configured to switch anoperation mode of the antenna 2502 at least if the processor 2504fulfills a predetermined transmitter criterion.

The antenna 2502 may include or may be an adaptive antenna array.

The antenna 2502 may include or may be a single antenna.

The plurality of operation modes of the antenna 2502 may include or maybe a plurality of operation modes of different reception patterns.

The predetermined transmitter criterion may include at least onecriterion of the following criteria: transmission power consumption;throughput of the transmitter; grant of the transmitter; ACK/NACK ratefor a HARQ process, and information provided by a mobile radio basestation in communication with the radio communication device withrespect to whether the transmitter is to increase or to decreasetransmission energy.

The processor 2504 may further be configured to receive data using theantenna 2502. The processor 2504 may further be configured to switch anoperation mode of the antenna 2502 if the processor 2504 fulfills apredetermined receiver criterion.

The processor 2504 may further be configured to evaluate a plurality ofoperation modes of the antenna 2502 in a plurality of cells. Theprocessor 2504 may further be configured to select a cell and anoperation mode of the antenna 2502 for operation of the radiocommunication device 2500.

The antenna 2502 may include or may be an adaptive antenna array.

The antenna 2502 may include or may be a single antenna.

The plurality of operation modes of the antenna 2502 may include or maybe a plurality of operation modes of different reception patterns ortransmission patterns.

The processor 2504 may further be configured to first evaluate theplurality of operation modes of the antenna 2502 in a first cell and tothereafter evaluate the plurality of operation modes of the antenna 2502in a second cell.

The processor 2504 may further be configured to first evaluate a firstoperation mode of the antenna 2502 in the plurality of cells and tothereafter evaluate a second operation mode of the antenna 2502 in theplurality of cells.

The processor 2504 may further be configured to preferably select a cellof a presently used network.

The processor 2504 may further be configured to receive a pagingindicator. The processor 2504 may further be configured to switch anoperation mode of the antenna based on the received paging indicator.

The antenna 2502 may include or may be an adaptive antenna array.

The antenna 2502 may include or may be a single antenna.

The plurality of operation modes of the antenna 2502 may include or maybe a plurality of operation modes of different reception patterns.

The processor 2504 may further be configured to receive data using theantenna 2502. The processor 2504 may further be configured to switch anoperation mode of the antenna 2502 in a reception gap of the processor2504.

The antenna 2502 may include or may be an adaptive antenna array.

The antenna 2502 may include or may be a single antenna.

The plurality of operation modes of the antenna 2502 may include or maybe a plurality of operation modes of different reception patterns.

The processor 2504 may further be configured to transmit data using theantenna 2502. The processor 2504 may further be configured to switch anoperation mode of the antenna 2502 in a transmission gap of theprocessor 2504.

The antenna 2502 may include or may be an adaptive antenna array.

The antenna 2502 may include or may be a single antenna.

The plurality of operation modes of the antenna 2502 may include or maybe a plurality of operation modes of different transmission patterns.

FIG. 26 shows a flow diagram 2600 illustrating a method for a radiocommunication device. In 2602, the radio communication device maycontrol an antenna configured to operate in a plurality of operationmodes. In 2604, a receiver may receive a first channel signal and asecond channel signal using the antenna. In 2606, a mode switchingcircuit may switch an operation mode of the antenna if the first channelsignal fulfills a first channel specific criterion or the mode switchingcircuit may switch an operation mode of the antenna if the secondchannel signal fulfills a second channel specific criterion.

The antenna may include or may be an adaptive antenna array.

The antenna may include or may be a single antenna.

The plurality of operation modes of the antenna may include or may be aplurality of operation modes of different reception patterns.

The first channel signal may include or may be a signal of a dedicatedpower controlled channel.

The dedicated power controlled channel may be used for voice calls.

The dedicated power controlled channel may be a Dedicated PhysicalChannel.

The second channel signal may include or may be a signal of a sharedchannel.

The shared channel may be used for data connections.

The shared channel may include or may be a High-Speed Downlink PacketAccess.

The mode switching circuit may switch an operation mode of the antennaindependent of the first channel signal if the second channel signalfulfills the second channel specific criterion.

The mode switching circuit may switch an operation mode of the antennafrom a presently used operation mode to another operation modeindependent of the first channel signal if the second channel signalfulfills the second channel specific criterion, when a reception qualityof the first channel signal is above a pre-determined threshold, and anoperation mode of the antenna may be switched from a presently usedoperation mode to another operation mode, when a reception quality ofthe first channel signal is below a pre-determined threshold.

The first channel specific criterion may include or may be at least onecriterion of the following criteria: a Channel Quality Indicator; aReceived Signal Strength Indication; a Received Signal Code Power; acarrier-to-noise ratio; an out-of-sync criterion; number of CyclicRedundancy Check errors; a power UP request of a transmission powercontrol mechanism; an average of power UP requests of a transmissionpower control mechanism; a power DOWN request of a transmission powercontrol mechanism; an average of power DOWN requests of a transmissionpower control mechanism; and a Dedicated Physical Channelsignal-to-noise ratio.

The second channel specific criterion may include or may be at least onecriterion of the following criteria: a Channel Quality Indicator; aReceived Signal Strength Indication; a Received Signal Code Power; acarrier-to-noise ratio; an out-of-sync criterion; and number of CyclicRedundancy Check errors.

FIG. 27 shows a flow diagram 2700 illustrating a method for a radiocommunication device. In 2702, the radio communication device maycontrol an antenna configured to operate in a plurality of operationmodes. In 2704, a transmitter may transmit a first channel signal and asecond channel signal using the antenna. In 2706, a mode switchingcircuit may switch an operation mode of the antenna if the first channelsignal fulfills a first channel specific criterion or the mode switchingcircuit may switch an operation mode of the antenna may be switched ifthe second channel signal fulfills a second channel specific criterion.

The antenna may include or may be an adaptive antenna array.

The antenna may include or may be a single antenna.

The plurality of operation modes of the antenna may include or may be aplurality of operation modes of different transmitting patterns.

The first channel signal may include or may be a signal of a dedicatedpower controlled channel.

The dedicated power controlled channel may be used for voice calls.

The dedicated power controlled channel may include or may be a DedicatedPhysical Channel.

The second channel signal may include or may be a signal of a sharedchannel.

The shared channel may be used for data connections.

The shared channel may include or may be a High-Speed Downlink PacketAccess.

The mode switching circuit may switch an operation mode of the antennaindependent of the first channel signal if the second channel signalfulfills the second channel specific criterion.

The mode switching circuit may switch an operation mode of the antennafrom a presently used operation mode to another operation modeindependent of the first channel signal if the second channel signalfulfills the second channel specific criterion, when a reception qualityof the first channel signal is above a pre-determined threshold, and themode switching circuit may switch an operation mode of the antenna froma presently used operation mode to another operation mode, when areception quality of the first channel signal is below a pre-determinedthreshold.

The first channel specific criterion may include or may be at least onecriterion of the following criteria: a Channel Quality Indicator; aReceived Signal Strength Indication; a Received Signal Code Power; acarrier-to-noise ratio; an out-of-sync criterion; number of CyclicRedundancy Check errors; a power UP request of a transmission powercontrol mechanism; an average of power UP requests of a transmissionpower control mechanism; a power DOWN request of a transmission powercontrol mechanism; an average of power DOWN requests of a transmissionpower control mechanism; and a Dedicated Physical Channelsignal-to-noise ratio.

The second channel specific criterion may include or may be at least onecriterion of the following criteria: a Channel Quality Indicator; aReceived Signal Strength Indication; a Received Signal Code Power; acarrier-to-noise ratio; an out-of-sync criterion; and number of CyclicRedundancy Check errors.

FIG. 28 shows a flow diagram 2800 illustrating a method for a radiocommunication device. In 2802, the radio communication device maycontrol an antenna configured to operate in a plurality of operationmodes. In 2804, a mode switching circuit may switch an operation mode ofthe antenna. In 2806, a mode switching blocking circuit may preventswitching of the operation mode of the antenna.

The antenna may include or may be an adaptive antenna array.

The antenna may include or may be a single antenna.

The plurality of operation modes of the antenna may include or may be aplurality of operation modes of different reception patterns.

Furthermore, a quality determination circuit may determine a quality ofreception of data using the antenna.

The mode switching blocking circuit may prevent switching of theoperation mode of the antenna based on the determined quality ofreception.

Furthermore, the quality determination circuit may determine a qualityof transmission of data using the antenna.

The mode switching blocking circuit may prevent switching of theoperation mode of the antenna based on the determined quality oftransmission.

A system state determination circuit may determine a system state of theradio communication device.

The mode switching blocking circuit may prevent switching of theoperation mode of the antenna based on the determined system state.

FIG. 29 shows a flow diagram 2900 illustrating a method for a radiocommunication device. In 2902, a radio communication device may controla first antenna configured to operate in a plurality of operation modes.In 2904, the radio communication device may control a second antenna. In2906, a diversity mode selection circuit may select a diversity mode asa diversity-off mode in which one (for example only one) of the firstantenna and the second antenna is operating and the diversity modeselection circuit may select the diversity mode as a diversity-on modein which both the first antenna and the second antenna are operating. In1708, a mode switching circuit may switch an operation mode of the firstantenna based on the selected diversity mode.

The antenna may include or may be an adaptive antenna array.

The antenna may include or may be a single antenna.

The plurality of operation modes of the first antenna may include or maybe a plurality of operation modes of different reception patterns.

The radio communication device may prepare for selecting the diversitymode as the diversity-on mode when the mode switching circuit switchesan operation mode of the first antenna.

The diversity mode selection circuit may select the diversity mode asthe diversity-on mode when the mode switching circuit switches anoperation mode of the first antenna.

The second antenna may be configured to operate in a plurality ofoperation modes, and an operation mode of the second antenna may beswitched.

The mode switching circuit may switch an operation mode of the secondantenna based on the operation mode of the first antenna.

A determination circuit may determine a usage scenario of the radiocommunication device. The mode switching circuit may switch an operationmode of the first antenna based on the determined usage scenario.

FIG. 30 shows a flow diagram 3000 illustrating a method for a radiocommunication device. In 3002, the radio communication device maycontrol a first antenna configured to operate in a plurality ofoperation modes and configured to receive signals from a plurality ofsend antennas. In 3004, the radio communication device may control asecond antenna configured to receive signals from the plurality of sendantennas. In 3006, a channel matrix determination circuit may determinea channel matrix for the first antenna and the second antenna and theplurality of send antennas. In 3008, a mode switching circuit may switchan operation mode of the first antenna based on the determined channelmatrix.

The first antenna may include or may be an adaptive antenna array.

The first antenna may include or may be a single antenna.

The plurality of operation modes of the first antenna may include or maybe a plurality of operation modes of different reception patterns.

The mode switching circuit may switch an operation mode of the firstantenna to increase the rank of the channel matrix.

The mode switching circuit may switch an operation mode of the firstantenna to decrease the rank of the channel matrix.

The second antenna may further be configured to operate in a pluralityof operation modes. An operation mode of the second antenna may beswitched based on the determined channel matrix.

A determination circuit may determine whether an operation mode of thefirst antenna or an operation mode of the second antenna is to beswitched based on the determined channel matrix.

The determination circuit may determine whether an operation mode of thefirst antenna or an operation mode of the second antenna is to beswitched based on the influence of the first antenna and the secondantenna on the channel matrix.

FIG. 31 shows a flow diagram 3100 illustrating a method for a radiocommunication device. In 3102, the radio communication device maycontrol a first antenna configured to operate in a plurality ofoperation modes and configured to transmit signals to a plurality ofsend antennas. In 3104, the radio communication device may control asecond antenna configured to transmit signals to the plurality of sendantennas. In 3106, a channel matrix determination circuit may determinea channel matrix for the first antenna and the second antenna and theplurality of send antennas. In 3108, a mode switching circuit may switchan operation mode of the first antenna based on the determined channelmatrix.

The first antenna may include or may be an adaptive antenna array.

The first antenna may include or may be a single antenna.

The plurality of operation modes of the first antenna may include or maybe a plurality of operation modes of different transmission patterns.

The mode switching circuit may switch an operation mode of the firstantenna so that the rank of the channel matrix increases.

The mode switching circuit may switch an operation mode of the firstantenna so that the rank of the channel matrix decreases.

The second antenna may further be configured to operate in a pluralityof operation modes. The mode switching circuit may switch an operationmode of the second antenna based on the determined channel matrix.

A determination circuit may determine whether an operation mode of thefirst antenna or an operation mode of the second antenna is to beswitched based on the determined channel matrix.

The determination circuit may determine whether an operation mode of thefirst antenna or an operation mode of the second antenna is to beswitched based on the influence of the first antenna and the secondantenna on the channel matrix.

FIG. 32 shows a flow diagram 3200 illustrating a method for a radiocommunication device. In 3202, the radio communication device maycontrol an antenna configured to operate in a plurality of operationmodes. In 3204, an interference determiner may determine interference ofdata received or sent by the antenna with another radio communicationdevice. In 3206, a mode switching circuit may switch an operation modeof the antenna based on the determined interference.

The antenna may include or may be an adaptive antenna array.

The antenna may include or may be a single antenna.

The plurality of operation modes of the antenna may include or may be aplurality of operation modes of different reception patterns ortransmission patterns.

The mode switching circuit may switch an operation mode of the antennaswitched so that the interference is decreased.

FIG. 33 shows a flow diagram 3300 illustrating a method for a radiocommunication device. In 3302, the radio communication device maycontrol an antenna configured to operate in a plurality of operationmodes. In 33504, a transmitter may transmit data using the antenna. In3306, a mode switching circuit may switch an operation mode of theantenna at least if the transmitting fulfills a predeterminedtransmitter criterion.

The antenna may include or may be an adaptive antenna array.

The antenna may include or may be a single antenna.

The plurality of operation modes of the antenna may include or may be aplurality of operation modes of different reception patterns.

The predetermined transmitter criterion may include or may be at leastone criterion of the following criteria: transmission power consumption;throughput of the transmitter; grant of the transmitter; ACK/NACK ratefor a HARQ process, and information provided by a mobile radio basestation in communication with the radio communication device withrespect to whether the transmitter is to increase or to decreasetransmission energy.

A receiver may receive data using the antenna. The mode switchingcircuit may switch an operation mode of the antenna at least if thereceiving fulfills a predetermined receiver criterion.

FIG. 34 shows a flow diagram 3400 illustrating a method for a radiocommunication device. In 3402, the radio communication device maycontrol an antenna configured to operate in a plurality of operationmodes. In 3404, an evaluation circuit may evaluate a plurality ofoperation modes of the antenna in a plurality of cells. In 3406, a cellselection circuit may select a cell and an operation mode of the antennafor operation of the radio communication device.

The antenna may include or may be an adaptive antenna array.

The antenna may include or may be a single antenna.

The plurality of operation modes of the antenna may include or may be aplurality of operation modes of different reception patterns ortransmission patterns.

The evaluation circuit may evaluate the plurality of operation modes ofthe antenna first in a first cell and thereafter may evaluate theplurality of operation modes of the antenna in a second cell.

The evaluation circuit may evaluate a first operation mode of theantenna first in the plurality of cells and thereafter may evaluate asecond operation mode of the antenna in the plurality of cells.

The evaluation circuit may preferably select a cell of a presently usednetwork.

FIG. 35 shows a flow diagram 3500 illustrating a method for a radiocommunication device. In 3502, the radio communication device maycontrol an antenna configured to operate in a plurality of operationmodes. In 3504, a receiver may receive a paging indicator. In 3506, amode switching circuit may switch an operation mode of the antenna basedon the received paging indicator.

The antenna may include or may be an adaptive antenna array.

The antenna may include or may be a single antenna.

The plurality of operation modes of the antenna may include or may be aplurality of operation modes of different reception patterns.

FIG. 36 shows a flow diagram 3600 illustrating a method for a radiocommunication device. In 3602, the radio communication device maycontrol an antenna configured to operate in a plurality of operationmodes. In 3604, a receiver may receive data using the antenna. In 3606,a mode switching circuit may switch an operation mode of the antenna ina reception gap.

The antenna may include or may be an adaptive antenna array.

The antenna may include or may be a single antenna.

The plurality of operation modes of the antenna may include or may be aplurality of operation modes of different reception patterns.

FIG. 37 shows a flow diagram 3700 illustrating a method for a radiocommunication device. In 3702, the radio communication device maycontrol an antenna configured to operate in a plurality of operationmodes. In 3704, a transmitter may transmit data using the antenna. In3706, a mode switching circuit may switch an operation mode of theantenna in a transmission gap.

The antenna may include or may be an adaptive antenna array.

The antenna may include or may be a single antenna.

The plurality of operation modes of the antenna may include or may be aplurality of operation modes of different transmission patterns.

Any one of the radio communication devices described above may beconfigured according to at least one of the following radio accesstechnologies: a Bluetooth radio communication technology, an Ultra WideBand (UWB) radio communication technology, and/or a Wireless Local AreaNetwork radio communication technology (for example according to an IEEE802.11 (for example IEEE 802.11n) radio communication standard)), IrDA(Infrared Data Association), Z-Wave and ZigBee, HiperLAN/2 ((HIghPErformance Radio LAN; an alternative ATM-like 5 GHz standardizedtechnology), IEEE 802.11a (5 GHz), IEEE 802.11g (2.4 GHz), IEEE 802.11n,IEEE 802.11VHT (VHT=Very High Throughput), Worldwide Interoperabilityfor Microwave Access (WiMax) (for example according to an IEEE 802.16radio communication standard, for example WiMax fixed or WiMax mobile),WiPro, HiperMAN (High Performance Radio Metropolitan Area Network)and/or IEEE 802.16m Advanced Air Interface, a Global System for MobileCommunications (GSM) radio communication technology, a General PacketRadio Service (GPRS) radio communication technology, an Enhanced DataRates for GSM Evolution (EDGE) radio communication technology, and/or aThird Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) radio communicationtechnology (for example UMTS (Universal Mobile TelecommunicationsSystem), FOMA (Freedom of Multimedia Access), 3GPP LTE (Long TermEvolution), 3GPP LTE Advanced (Long Term Evolution Advanced)), CDMA2000(Code division multiple access 2000), CDPD (Cellular Digital PacketData), Mobitex, 3G (Third Generation), CSD (Circuit Switched Data),HSCSD (High-Speed Circuit-Switched Data), UMTS (3G) (Universal MobileTelecommunications System (Third Generation)), W-CDMA (UMTS) (WidebandCode Division Multiple Access (Universal Mobile TelecommunicationsSystem)), HSPA (High Speed Packet Access), HSDPA (High-Speed DownlinkPacket Access), HSUPA (High-Speed Uplink Packet Access), HSPA+(HighSpeed Packet Access Plus), UMTS-TDD (Universal Mobile TelecommunicationsSystem-Time-Division Duplex), TD-CDMA (Time Division-Code DivisionMultiple Access), TD-CDMA (Time Division-Synchronous Code DivisionMultiple Access), 3GPP Rel. 8 (Pre-4G) (3rd Generation PartnershipProject Release 8 (Pre-4th Generation)), UTRA (UMTS Terrestrial RadioAccess), E-UTRA (Evolved UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access), LTE Advanced(4G) (Long Term Evolution Advanced (4th Generation)), cdmaOne (2G),CDMA2000 (3G) (Code division multiple access 2000 (Third generation)),EV-DO (Evolution-Data Optimized or Evolution-Data Only), AMPS (1G)(Advanced Mobile Phone System (1st Generation)), TACS/ETACS (TotalAccess Communication System/Extended Total Access Communication System),D-AMPS (2G) (Digital AMPS (2nd Generation)), PTT (Push-to-talk), MTS(Mobile Telephone System), IMTS (Improved Mobile Telephone System), AMTS(Advanced Mobile Telephone System), OLT (Norwegian for OffentligLandmobil Telefoni, Public Land Mobile Telephony), MTD (Swedishabbreviation for Mobiltelefonisystem D, or Mobile telephony system D),Autotel/PALM (Public Automated Land Mobile), ARP (Finnish forAutoradiopuhelin, car radio phone”), NMT (Nordic Mobile Telephony),Hicap (High capacity version of NTT (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone)),CDPD (Cellular Digital Packet Data), Mobitex, DataTAC, iDEN (IntegratedDigital Enhanced Network), PDC (Personal Digital Cellular), CSD (CircuitSwitched Data), PHS (Personal Handy-phone System), WiDEN (WidebandIntegrated Digital Enhanced Network), iBurst, Unlicensed Mobile Access(UMA, also referred to as also referred to as 3GPP Generic AccessNetwork, or GAN standard).

While the invention has been particularly shown and described withreference to specific aspects of this disclosure, it should beunderstood by those skilled in the art that various changes in form anddetail may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scopeof the invention as defined by the appended claims. The scope of theinvention is thus indicated by the appended claims and all changes whichcome within the meaning and range of equivalency of the claims aretherefore intended to be embraced.

What is claimed is:
 1. A radio communication device comprising: areceiver configured to receive data using an antenna on a first carrierand a second carrier; an operation mode determination circuit configuredto determine an active antenna operation mode based on information ofthe first carrier and information of the second carrier; and an antennacontroller configured to control the antenna to operate in thedetermined active antenna operation mode.
 2. The radio communicationdevice of claim 1, wherein the information of the first carriercomprises at least one of an indicator indicating a communicationquality using the first carrier, an indicator indicating a throughputusing the first carrier, a Channel Quality Indicator of the firstcarrier, a signal-to-noise ratio of the first carrier, a number ofretransmission on the first carrier, a bandwidth of the first carrier, areceived signal strength indication of the first carrier, a receivedsignal code power of the first carrier, and a block error rate of thefirst carrier; and wherein the information of the second carriercomprises at least one of an indicator indicating a communicationquality using the second carrier, an indicator indicating a throughputusing the second carrier, a Channel Quality Indicator of the secondcarrier, a signal-to-noise ratio of the second carrier, a number ofretransmission on the second carrier, a bandwidth of the second carrier,a received signal strength indication of the second carrier, a receivedsignal code power of the second carrier, and a block error rate of thesecond carrier.
 3. The radio communication device of claim 1, thereceiver configured to receive control data using the antenna on thefirst carrier; the radio communication device further comprising: acontrol data quality determiner configured to determine a receptionquality of the control data; the operation mode determination circuitconfigured to determine the active antenna operation mode based on thefirst carrier if the reception quality of the control data is below apre-determined threshold.
 4. The radio communication device of claim 1,the receiver configured to receive data using a first antenna and asecond antenna on a first carrier and a second carrier; the operationmode determination circuit configured to determine an active antennaoperation mode for the first antenna based on information of the firstcarrier; the operation mode determination circuit configured todetermine an active antenna operation mode for the second antenna basedon information of the second carrier; the antenna controller configuredto control the first antenna to operate in the determined first activeantenna operation mode; and the antenna controller configured to controlthe second antenna to operate in the determined second active antennaoperation mode.
 5. The radio communication device of claim 1, thereceiver configured to receive data using a first antenna and a secondantenna on a first carrier and a second carrier; the operation modedetermination circuit configured to determine an active antennaoperation mode for the first antenna based on information of the firstcarrier; the operation mode determination circuit configured todetermine an active antenna operation mode for the second antenna basedon the determined first active antenna operation mode; the antennacontroller configured to control the first antenna to operate in thedetermined first active antenna operation mode; and the antennacontroller configured to control the second antenna to operate in thedetermined second active antenna operation mode.
 6. The radiocommunication device of claim 1, the operation mode determinationcircuit configured to determine one of the information of the firstcarrier and the information of the second carrier as a carrier foroperation mode determination; and the operation mode determinationcircuit configured to determine the active antenna operation mode basedon the information of the selected carrier for operation modedetermination.
 7. A radio communication device comprising: a transmitterconfigured to transmit data using an antenna on a first carrier and asecond carrier; an operation mode determination circuit configured todetermine an active antenna operation mode based on information of thefirst carrier and information of the second carrier; and an antennacontroller configured to control the antenna to operate in thedetermined active antenna operation mode.
 8. The radio communicationdevice of claim 7, wherein the information of the first carriercomprises at least one of an indicator indicating a communicationquality using the first carrier, an indicator indicating a throughputusing the first carrier, a Channel Quality Indicator of the firstcarrier, a signal-to-noise ratio of the first carrier, a number ofretransmission on the first carrier, a bandwidth of the first carrier, areceived signal strength indication of the first carrier, a receivedsignal code power of the first carrier, and a block error rate of thefirst carrier; and wherein the information of the second carriercomprises at least one of an indicator indicating a communicationquality using the second carrier, an indicator indicating a throughputusing the second carrier, a Channel Quality Indicator of the secondcarrier, a signal-to-noise ratio of the second carrier, a number ofretransmission on the second carrier, a bandwidth of the second carrier,a received signal strength indication of the second carrier, a receivedsignal code power of the second carrier, and a block error rate of thesecond carrier.
 9. The radio communication device of claim 7, thetransmitter configured to transmit control data using the antenna on thefirst carrier; the radio communication device further comprising: acontrol data quality determiner configured to determine a receptionquality of the control data; the operation mode determination circuitconfigured to determine the active antenna operation mode based on thefirst carrier if the reception quality of the control data is below apre-determined threshold.
 10. The radio communication device of claim 7,the transmitter configured to transmit data using a first antenna and asecond antenna on a first carrier and a second carrier; the operationmode determination circuit configured to determine an active antennaoperation mode for the first antenna based on information of the firstcarrier; the operation mode determination circuit configured todetermine an active antenna operation mode for the second antenna basedon information of the second carrier; the antenna controller configuredto control the first antenna to operate in the determined first activeantenna operation mode; and the antenna controller configured to controlthe second antenna to operate in the determined second active antennaoperation mode.
 11. The radio communication device of claim 7, thetransmitter configured to transmit data using a first antenna and asecond antenna on a first carrier and a second carrier; the operationmode determination circuit configured to determine an active antennaoperation mode for the first antenna based on information of the firstcarrier; the operation mode determination circuit configured todetermine an active antenna operation mode for the second antenna basedon the determined first active antenna operation mode; the antennacontroller configured to control the first antenna to operate in thedetermined first active antenna operation mode; and the antennacontroller configured to control the second antenna to operate in thedetermined second active antenna operation mode.
 12. The radiocommunication device of claim 7, the operation mode determinationcircuit configured to determine one of the information of the firstcarrier and the information of the second carrier as a carrier foroperation mode determination; and the operation mode determinationcircuit configured to determine the active antenna operation mode basedon the information of the selected carrier for operation modedetermination.
 13. A method for controlling a radio communicationdevice, the method comprising: receiving data using an antenna on afirst carrier and a second carrier; determining an active antennaoperation mode based on information of the first carrier and informationof the second carrier; and controlling the antenna to operate in thedetermined active antenna operation mode.
 14. The method of claim 13,wherein the information of the first carrier comprises at least one ofan indicator indicating a communication quality using the first carrier,an indicator indicating a throughput using the first carrier, a ChannelQuality Indicator of the first carrier, a signal-to-noise ratio of thefirst carrier, a number of retransmission on the first carrier, abandwidth of the first carrier, a received signal strength indication ofthe first carrier, a received signal code power of the first carrier,and a block error rate of the first carrier; and wherein the informationof the second carrier comprises at least one of an indicator indicatinga communication quality using the second carrier, an indicatorindicating a throughput using the second carrier, a Channel QualityIndicator of the second carrier, a signal-to-noise ratio of the secondcarrier, a number of retransmission on the second carrier, a bandwidthof the second carrier, a received signal strength indication of thesecond carrier, a received signal code power of the second carrier, anda block error rate of the second carrier.
 15. The method of claim 13,further comprising: receiving control data using the antenna on thefirst carrier; determining a reception quality of the control data; anddetermining the active antenna operation mode based on the first carrierif the reception quality of the control data is below a pre-determinedthreshold.
 16. The method of claim 13, further comprising: receivingdata using a first antenna and a second antenna on a first carrier and asecond carrier; determining an active antenna operation mode for thefirst antenna based on information of the first carrier; determining anactive antenna operation mode for the second antenna based oninformation of the second carrier; controlling the first antenna tooperate in the determined first active antenna operation mode; andcontrolling the second antenna to operate in the determined secondactive antenna operation mode.
 17. The method of claim 13, furthercomprising: receiving data using a first antenna and a second antenna ona first carrier and a second carrier; determining an active antennaoperation mode for the first antenna based on information of the firstcarrier; determining an active antenna operation mode for the secondantenna based on the determined first active antenna operation mode;controlling the first antenna to operate in the determined first activeantenna operation mode; and controlling the second antenna to operate inthe determined second active antenna operation mode.
 18. The method ofclaim 13, further comprising: determining one of the information of thefirst carrier and the information of the second carrier as a carrier foroperation mode determination; and determining the active antennaoperation mode based on the information of the selected carrier foroperation mode determination.
 19. A method for controlling a radiocommunication device, the method comprising: transmitting data using anantenna on a first carrier and a second carrier; determining an activeantenna operation mode based on information of the first carrier andinformation of the second carrier; and controlling the antenna tooperate in the determined active antenna operation mode.
 20. The methodof claim 19, wherein the information of the first carrier comprises atleast one of an indicator indicating a communication quality using thefirst carrier, an indicator indicating a throughput using the firstcarrier, a Channel Quality Indicator of the first carrier, asignal-to-noise ratio of the first carrier, a number of retransmissionon the first carrier, a bandwidth of the first carrier, a receivedsignal strength indication of the first carrier, a received signal codepower of the first carrier, and a block error rate of the first carrier;and wherein the information of the second carrier comprises at least oneof an indicator indicating a communication quality using the secondcarrier, an indicator indicating a throughput using the second carrier,a Channel Quality Indicator of the second carrier, a signal-to-noiseratio of the second carrier, a number of retransmission on the secondcarrier, a bandwidth of the second carrier, a received signal strengthindication of the second carrier, a received signal code power of thesecond carrier, and a block error rate of the second carrier.
 21. Themethod of claim 19, further comprising: transmitting control data usingthe antenna on the first carrier; determining a reception quality of thecontrol data; and determining the active antenna operation mode based onthe first carrier if the reception quality of the control data is belowa pre-determined threshold.
 22. The method of claim 19, furthercomprising: transmitting data using a first antenna and a second antennaon a first carrier and a second carrier; determining an active antennaoperation mode for the first antenna based on information of the firstcarrier; determining an active antenna operation mode for the secondantenna based on information of the second carrier; controlling thefirst antenna to operate in the determined first active antennaoperation mode; and controlling the second antenna to operate in thedetermined second active antenna operation mode.
 23. The method of claim19, further comprising: transmitting data using a first antenna and asecond antenna on a first carrier and a second carrier; determining anactive antenna operation mode for the first antenna based on informationof the first carrier; determining an active antenna operation mode forthe second antenna based on the determined first active antennaoperation mode; controlling the first antenna to operate in thedetermined first active antenna operation mode; and controlling thesecond antenna to operate in the determined second active antennaoperation mode.
 24. A radio communication device for communication usingan antenna on a first carrier and a second carrier, the radiocommunication device comprising: an antenna controller configured tocontrol the antenna to operate in an active antenna operation mode, theactive antenna operation mode based on information of the first carrierand information of the second carrier.
 25. The radio communicationdevice of claim 24, wherein the information of the first carriercomprises at least one of an indicator indicating a communicationquality using the first carrier, an indicator indicating a throughputusing the first carrier, a Channel Quality Indicator of the firstcarrier, a signal-to-noise ratio of the first carrier, a number ofretransmission on the first carrier, a bandwidth of the first carrier, areceived signal strength indication of the first carrier, a receivedsignal code power of the first carrier, and a block error rate of thefirst carrier; and wherein the information of the second carriercomprises at least one of an indicator indicating a communicationquality using the second carrier, an indicator indicating a throughputusing the second carrier, a Channel Quality Indicator of the secondcarrier, a signal-to-noise ratio of the second carrier, a number ofretransmission on the second carrier, a bandwidth of the second carrier,a received signal strength indication of the second carrier, a receivedsignal code power of the second carrier, and a block error rate of thesecond carrier.